In conversation: Cynthia Banham and Jane Messer
Date
6.15pm Thursday 28 May 2026
Location
Lane Cove Library
Library Place, Lane Cove, NSW
Mother Shadow by Cynthia Banham and Raven Mother by Jane Messer are two memoirs interweaving memory and history, exploring the nature of the authors maternal relationships and child abandonment.
Mother Shadow deals with the subject of maternal inheritance, parenting with disability, and the standards we set for ourselves as mothers. Raven Mother retraces the tragic and hopeful steps of Jane’s Jewish German grandmother, uncovering maternal abandonment, and links to past, and current, global events.
Cynthia is a writer, journalist and lawyer who has written multiple fiction and non-fiction books, and Jane is an accomplished author, former Associate Professor of Creative Writing, and founder and director of StorySALOON, a podcast dedicated to Australian short stories.
Books are available for purchase on the night.
Bookings essential.
Mother Shadow opens with the unearthing of a family secret. Cynthia Banham's great grandmother was not an orphan as she'd been told, but a foundling, abandoned at birth by a mother who ‘did not consent to be named’. Cynthia's discovery triggers a passionate and indignant reaction: what kind of mother would relinquish her child? Troubled by her rush to judge her ancestor, Cynthia becomes fixated on uncovering the mother's identity, a quest that takes her and her family to Bologna. As she pieces together the series of tragic events that led to the baby's abandonment, Cynthia wonders if her compulsion to understand the woman's act is linked to her own overwhelming sense of inadequacy as a mother.
Cynthia Banham is the author of Liberal Democracies and the Torture of their Citizens and A Certain Light: A Memoir of Family, Loss and Hope – an account of surviving a plane crash with a life-changing injuries. The book was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards. Previously she worked as a lawyer, journalist and academic. She lives in Sydney where she is currently restoring her suburban garden into a wilder place of refuge for frogs, lizards, insects, and small birds.
Fran Kelly has covered federal Politics for the ABC for many years and was host of the agenda setting RN breakfast programme for 17 years. She was the Europe Correspondent and has co-hosted the political podcast The Party Room for the past 10 years and 4 elections. Fran currently hosts daily current affairs/interview show The Radio National Hour.
