Motherhood, Absence and Transition

Trish Green is Research Associate in the Natural Burial Project at the University of Sheffield

'Trish Green’s engaging and well-argued book provides a rich analysis of the complex experiences and reconfigurations in emotions, identities and biographies that mothers face when their adult children leave home. This book will be important reading for those seeking to understand an aspect of mothers’ family lives that has been silenced conceptually, culturally and empirically.' Rosalind Edwards, London South Bank University, UK 'Drawing on a fascinating body of empirical data that describe adult children leaving home, this book considerably expands contemporary western visions of motherhood, demonstrating the scope of its relational qualities throughout the life course. In so doing it questions the values attributed to independence and autonomy, demonstrating their capacity to distort our perceptions of the emotional geographies of family relatedness.' Jenny Hockey,University of Sheffield, UK

• Acknowledgements, Introduction: Motherhood, Absence and Transition, 1 Becoming and Being a Mother, 2 Researching Mothers’ Experiences, 3 Modelling Motherhood, 4 Managing the Process of Separation, 5 Post-Separation Communication, 6 Mothers’ Futures, 7 Conclusion: Reflections on Motherhood, Absence and Transition, Appendix 1: Participants’ Biographies, Appendix 2: Interview Guide, Bibliography, Index