"I was two when the woman I called Mummy told me, 'You came out of another mummy's tummy.' I grew up thinking that my birth mother didn't want me. I assumed there must've been something inherently wrong with me - why else would a mother give up her baby?"

In 1974, Liz Harvie - born Claire Elaine Watts - was given up for adoption by her birth mother Yvonne. Claire was just eight weeks old when her adoptive parents took her in - and renamed her Elizabeth.

Although brought up in a 'perfect' household, the emotional - and physical - trauma of being taken from her biological mother would never leave Liz. She constantly wondered: what does my real mum look like? Will she come back for me? Why did she abandon me? But whenever Liz voiced such questions, she invariably received the same response: "Your birth parents were not married. They couldn't look after you."

Years later, aged twenty-eight, Liz reconnected with her birth mother - and finally learned the shocking truth surrounding her adoption. Yvonne had not abandoned her daughter. A social worker had snatched her ten-day-old baby from her arms. "I didn't even get a final cuddle. She just took her away from me," says Yvonne.

Liz became one of 185,000 victims of forced adoption between 1949 and 1976 in England and Wales. As a young unmarried mum, Yvonne was deemed unfit as a parent by the government, churches, adoption agencies and her father - and made to give up her child against her will.

Although reunited, Liz and Yvonne are still struggling to cope with the agony resulting from their devastating separation. As Liz says, "We can't just skip hand in hand into the sunset. The trauma of being a forced adoptee is lifelong."

About the Author

Liz Harvie was born in Northampton in 1974. She stayed with her mother in a maternity home for ten days before being taken by a social worker and placed into foster care. Her adoptive parents took her home eight weeks later. Liz is a victim of forced adoption, among 185,000 other babies taken throughout thirty or so years after the Second World War.

As an adoptee, Liz has appeared in several press articles, radio and television pieces and has featured in a BBC Documentary, If You Love Your Baby, on historical forced adoption. In 2022, Liz gave written and oral evidence when she spoke in parliament for the Joint Committee on Human Rights Inquiry into Forced Adoption - the right to family life: adoption of children of unmarried women 1949-1976. After having known only 1 other adoptee as a child, Liz has since met many other adult adoptees. In them, she found kindred spirits, comfort, solace and reassurance that in fact she never was the only one.

In May 2022, with this newfound sense of togetherness and community, Liz and six other women formed The Adult Adoptee Movement, which aims to challenge attitudes to and change the narrative on adoption, campaigning to raise awareness of the lifelong trauma adoptees face and ensure appropriate support is available for all those involved.

A lover of creative writing, Liz has always wanted to write a book, but she never knew what about. She is empowered, touched and humbled to have the chance to use her experience as an adoptee to share her story, in the hope that it reaches other adoptees, and all those affected by forced adoption and its aftermath. Liz lives in Camberley, Surrey with her husband, two daughters and two dogs. She is an end of life and pastoral care companion volunteer at her local hospital and hospice.

Eve Hatton is the co-author, with Shy Keenan, of the bestselling Broken (Mardle Books, 2022).

Reviews

'Unspoken is a deeply personal journey of failed, harmful social engineering. In 1974 both society and the state thought Liz's adoptive parents could provide a better home, a better future, than her young, unmarried birth mother. Despite being told she was "chosen", Liz still wrestled with issues of longing and belonging. She felt out of place and at times unloved in what, from the outside, seemed an otherwise idyllic Middle England family. The secrets and pretences upon which this idyllic family was built went unseen and unspoken. Recounting the unresolved trauma which returned at different stages in her life, Liz offers a heartfelt, harrowing and heroic story of finding her family. The book provides an opportunity for this injustice, which impacts so many adoptees and mothers, to be felt and above all spoken.'

-- Dr Michael Lambert, Research Fellow

'Liz's book left me feeling numb at first, but then humbled and angry to learn that adoption does not, as birth mothers were told back then as part of the coercion to relinquish our babies, always lead to a 'better life'. Liz weaves the emotional consequences of adoption throughout her book... her desire to be heard and her quest for justice and reparation is strongly evident.'

-- Ann Lloyd Keen RN, former Labour Health Minister 2007-2010, birth mother and campaigner for an adoption apology

'All those feelings, the injustices, the pain. Brava, Liz, for your hard work to help others and well done for allowing yourself to travel through such a challenging journey. Thank you from a fellow adoptee.'

-- Louise Allen, author of Thrown Away Child and the Thrown Away Children series



Book Information
ISBN 9781837700462
Author Liz Harvie
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Mardle Books
Publisher Ad Lib Publishers Ltd