The vast majority of academic texts on motherhood have focused on women's experiences of the early years of mothering, while texts covering the topic of home-leaving have tended to privilege the young person's experience. Combining lively empirical material with an illuminating social-theoretical framework, Trish Green's book addresses the much neglected area of the mother's experience of separation from her child at the time of their home-leaving. The book makes clear how the mother's experience of separation is silenced, first by the socio-cultural constructions of motherhood per se, second by the privileging of the child's transition to adulthood, and third by a neglect of the relational dimension of this particular life-course transition. In doing so the book makes an important contribution to debates on ageing, identity and the life-course, and will be of great interest to sociologists with various academic interests.

Trish Green is Research Associate in the Natural Burial Project at the University of Sheffield

Acknowledgements, Introduction: Motherhood, Absence and Transition, 1 Becoming and Being a Mother, 2 Researching Mothers' Experiences, 3 Modelling Motherhood, 4 Managing the Process of Separation, 5 Post-Separation Communication, 6 Mothers' Futures, 7 Conclusion: Reflections on Motherhood, Absence and Transition, Appendix 1: Participants' Biographies, Appendix 2: Interview Guide, Bibliography, Index