The God Squad (29 page)

Many of the children were told that their parents were dead. Their parents, too, were often deceived; many believed that their children had been adopted in Britain. The reality was very different: for numerous children it was to be a life of horrendous physical and sexual abuse in institutions in Western Australia and elsewhere.

Margaret Humphreys reveals how she gradually unravelled this shocking secret; how she became drawn into the lives of some of these innocent and unwilling exiles, how it became her mission to reunite them with their families in Britain, and how her lonely crusade led to the founding of the Child Migrants Trust.

Empty Cradles
is a strong indictment of government, as well as charitable and religious organizations. It is a sad, harrowing story that will move the reader to anger and tears. Yet it offers a message of hope to all the victims of a shameful scandal that has been ignored for too long.

‘A scandal that makes
All The President’s Men
pale into insignificance . . . brought tears to my eyes’

Terry Waite,
The Times

‘A truly astonishing, haunting, real-life detective story’
She
(Australia)

‘The secrets of the lost children of Britain may never have been revealed if it had not been for [the actions of] Margaret Humphreys’
Sunday Times

0 552 14164 X

FINDING PEGGY:
A Glasgow Childhood
by Meg Henderson

Scottish journalist Meg Henderson grew up in Glasgow during the fifties and sixties as part of a large and often troubled family. The tenement block in which they lived collapsed and they were moved to the notorious Blackhill district, where religious sectarianism, gang warfare and struggles with hostile bureaucrats were part of daily life for the people. Meg was born into a mixed-religion family, where there was warmth and laughter as well as conflict. She had a close relationship with her mother, Nan, and her mother’s sister, Meg’s Aunt Peggy, two idealistic, emotional women who took on the troubles of the world. Together they shaped Meg’s life, shielded her from the effects of her father’s heavy drinking and helped her to move on, eventually, from the slums of Glasgow.

A hopeless romantic, Peggy searched for a husband until late in her life and then endured a harsh, unhappy marriage until she died tragically in childbirth. Her death devastated the family and destroyed Meg’s childhood, but it was only as an adult, after the death of her own mother, that Meg was able to discover the shocking facts behind Peggy’s untimely demise.

‘Beautifully written and immensely enjoyable. Captures Glasgow perfectly with no rose-tinted glass’

Alan Taylor

0 552 14185 2

A SELECTED LIST OF FINE WRITING
AVAILABLE FROM CORGI AND BLACK SWAN

THE PRICES SHOWN BELOW WERE CORRECT AT THE TIME OF GOING TO PRESS. HOWEVER TRANSWORLD PUBLISHERS RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SHOW NEW RETAIL PRICES ON COVERS WHICH MAY DIFFER FROM THOSE PREVIOUSLY ADVERTISED IN THE TEXT OR ELSEWHERE.

All Transworld titles are available by post from:

Bookpost, PO Box 29, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM99 1BQ

Credit cards accepted. Please telephone 01624 836000,
fax 01624 837033, Internet
http://www.bookpost.co.uk
or e-mail:
[email protected]
for details

Free postage and packing in the UK
. Overseas customers:
allow £1 per book (paperbacks) and £3 per book (hardbacks)