Girl 43

Trade Paperback

The graffiti on the holding room wall says it all: 'Gunyah is hell on earth'. And Ellen's about to find out why.

Ellen was never the daughter her mother wanted. Patent leather shoes and frilly dresses just weren't her thing and, at age fourteen, she's ready to leave school and find her own way. No one is going to stop her from going where she wants, doing what she wants, and hanging out with Robbie. Or so she thinks.

But when the police turn up, Ellen is deemed to be in 'moral danger' and is sentenced to the Gunyah Training School for Girls. Suddenly, she's no longer Ellen, she's Girl 43, and she has to follow the rules, work hard and - most importantly - stay quiet.

When it's discovered that she's pregnant there's no respite from the staff. Told she isn't capable of bringing up a child, they twist the truth to make her cooperate. But however hard they try, they can't destroy the connection between a mother and her child . . . can they?

Drawing on the author's experiences at the Parramatta Girls Home in the 1970s, this poignant and powerful novel could have come straight from the today's headlines.