'I have a ring, a string of pearls, a locket and a gold heart. These I wear. The papers are piled around my desk, tied with the thread she made, along with the notebooks I kept of our conversations during that strange last summer. Through this patchy evidence I piece together the story of Poppy who was born 1924 and died in 1984, daughter of China and Jack, wife of Richard, lover of Marcus, mother of May and Phoebe and me. That is how we mark a woman, by her kin and progeny. But it doesn't tell me who she was.'
This is a story of Modjeska's mother, about women in the modern world, about mothers, daughters, husbands, lovers, work and a new life that comes with middle age.
