Anne Enright’s ‘Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood’ meets Rachel Johnson’s ‘The Mummy Diaries’ along with advocate for child rights, Nandana Sen. Together these 3 writers shared their stories on maternity, family life and the child. 

“I found the whole experience of being a mother super exhausting. My mother gave me the greatest advice I’ve ever got – ‘don’t worry nothing is wasted’. There is this incredible pressure on women to be a mother and when they are mothers to be maternal and very involved with their child life. If you look through literature, it’s really hard to find any absent mothers”

expressed Rachel Johnson. 

Nandana Sen read a few poems that illustrated the romance between a mother-daughter relationship and expressed how literature lacks books that focuses away from traditional families.

Anne Enright also spoke about her relationship with her mother and her daughter’s relationship with her and spoke about how each person experiences a different relationship with their mother. 

“I really enjoyed the session. It went well and to be on stage with Anne and Nandana is the dream. I had great fun and it was a lively audience”

said Rachel Johnson after her session. 

We also spoke to a few audience members for their thoughts on the session; 

"Very interesting session. I have a daughter myself and we have such a close relationship and I have a similar reaction with my grandchildren so it's such a lovely conversation to listen to" - Siromi 

"It was really interesting. I had a lot of fun and between the 3 writers there was a lot of content" - Oshini 

"The session gave a very interesting perspective" - Fredrick 

"It was good! At the last few minutes they spoke about families of different communities, families that aren't traditional and I wish we could have discussed that more" - Sherin

"It was really good. The 3 of them did a brilliant job. Overall it was a great conversation" - Catherina 

Pictures by Waruna Wanniarachchi