New writing BABIES Guest Editor DEBORAH MOGGACH introduces her pick of poetry and prose on the theme of babies IN my novels I have written a great deal about children. I’ve written about the loss of childhood through divorce, abduction and surrogacy. In Porky I wrote about incest; in Driving in the Dark I wrote about a coach driver who travels across England searching for the son he has never known. In one short story, ‘Changing Babies’, I wrote about a parental split-up through the confused eyes of a six-year-old boy. I kept pushing at the parental bond, testing it; in Seesaw I wrote about a stroppy teenager who was kidnapped, and is reunited with her parents in return for a ransom that ruins them. In my latest novel, Final Demand, I explored the ultimate loss of a child through death. I didn’t notice for a while that I kept returning to the theme. One doesn’t see patterns about oneself. I think it simply stems from my being a mother. It’s the deepest passion of my life and though my children are now in their mid-20s it doesn’t go away, it just gets more complicated. I’ve drawn on those feelings for my fictional parents – a boozy actor, the coach driver, a harassed couple who run a pub in Manchester. As the years pass their children have grown older, ghostly counterparts to my real ones. For the complete essay, and for Deborah's full selection of poetry and prose on the theme of babies, read issue 16 • Subscribe! Read a poem chosen by Deborah Moggach: Six billionth baby by Penelope Shuttle For more on DEBORAH MOGGACH, go to www.deborahmoggach.com
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