Birth pains
- Source: Global Times
- [18:48 March 02 2011]
- Comments
Acclaimed writer Anne Summers
By Zhang Lei
Against the early spring chill, Sydney-based writer Anne Summers arrived at the capital with a riveting narrative of her latest memoir, The Lost Mother (2009), at Beijing's finely decorated Capital M, as part of the restaurant's ongoing literary festival.
Here in the dim light, the acclaimed journalist, writer and women's activist shared her most intimate feelings for her late mother, who left Summers a mysterious 1933 painting of herself as a ten-year-old.
"Staring down at me was my mother as a schoolgirl, seated, wearing a red beret, blue jumper and brown, pleated skirt.
She was holding up to her chest a large book with a red trim, Alice and the White Rabbit," Summers depicts the painting in her book.
"The title of the book refers to the missing painting, and also the lost relationship between my mother and me," according to Summers; the pair shared what she describes as a very difficult relationship.
"My mother died very suddenly, so there was no chance to try and make things up. That's probably why I was feeling very guilty and grief-stricken when she died," she said.
When the painting came to her house, Summers' emotional reaction became the moment she decided to write about it.
"It's quite a challenge, when you want to know something and there's no obvious trail, you have to try and be very creative," she said.
Her extensive research into the painting at auction houses shed light on two other women: the female artist, the once-famous but now long-forgotten Constance Stokes (1906-1991) and Russian migr collector Lydia Mortill, who originally bought the painting.
A second painting, in which her mother, Eileen Hogan, was painted as Madonna wearing a blue veil, remains missing.
However, with the help of readers and the Internet, Summers is still looking for it and new clues have been uncovered bit by bit since publication in 2009.
