Author(s): Frances Edmond

New Zealand Literature | Literary biography

Always Going Home is the compelling personal story of Frances Edmonds relationship with her beloved, complicated, difficult mother, the award-winning poet Lauris Edmond (19242000). This book takes a more intimate look at areas of Lauriss private life than have been detailed in previous family histories and autobiographies. Writing from memory, family recollections, and the goldmine of Lauriss correspondence and diaries, Frances details how her life intersected with, and often diverged from, her mothers. As creative collaborator, sole literary executor, and a frequent sounding board and confidante, Frances was privy to details known to very few. Beyond the trivia of who said what about whom, she learned about the wounds her mother carried and her inability to manage, or influence, the shifting tides of grief and resentment within their family. Always Going Home is more than a personal account of an impossible but greatly admired mother, and more than an account of a writers literary and familial struggles and triumphs it is a revealing love story about how relationships between mothers and daughters evolve, complete with their unique blessings and challenges.