In Lost Children Polly Toynbee has, for reasons she never makes clear, interviewed many - she does not say how many - adopted children who, after the Children's Act of 1975 was passed, set out in search of their biological parents. Her book presents us with nine 'case-studies' of children who searched for and found their parents, not always with happy results. Whenever possible, she interviewed the biological parent in order to illuminate the reasons why women give children up and the toll this decision takes. Not surprisingly, she has discovered that women who gave their children up did so for good and pressing reasons and that many of them, even if they did not regret the decision, later lived with a feeling of loss. She also discovered that adopted children who searched for their biological parents had not, generally, been happy in their adoptive homes, and even those who had been happily placed had strong fantasies about who their natural mothers were and what they were like.

LRB 5 December 1985 | PDF Download