Joan Porter Buxton was born four years after the death of Queen Victoria, to Mr and Mrs Edwin Porter. After his early death in Egypt, she was adopted as an infant into the well-to-do Buxton family. Brought up in the Edwardian era, and in an upper-class milieu, she was accepted as one of the family . Despite her adoptive parents' care, and growing up ignorant of the fact that she was not of Buxton blood, she found it difficult to adjust to life, and became 'turbulent, unhappy and self-willed' . It was only after a stormy scene when she was twelve, that Mrs Buxton told her the bare fact that she had been adopted: 'Maybe, if you know what we have done for you, you will behave better.'
This sudden tumbling to pieces of all that she had taken for granted left her feeling rejected-not truly belonging anywhere, and with no identity of her own. She tells the story in vivid prose, with lively vignettes of her Edwardian-early Georgian background. The story continues through World War 1 to the experience in the thirties which enabled her to integrate with the world, and solve her own alienations. Adventurous years in many parts of the world lead up to the present day.
Her book is a must for all who have adopted or been adopted; for all who feel rejected because of differences of race, birth or talents; for all with social cares. Those who like a good story, well told, about real life, will enjoy this book.
English