Clearly there is still a real need for parents with transgender children for encouragement and guidance to help them understand and accept the radical path taken by their son or daughter.

With warmth, humour, and lots of love, Lynda survived the initial harrowing days and sleepless nights, enabling her to accept her son Tony’s transition to daughter Toni. Together with her husband and Tony’s younger brother, the whole family learnt to adjust as necessary, while coping with the usual problems of ageing parents, unemployment and family illness, experienced by all families. 

A special book for special families…

Lynda Langley, He’s My Daughter, Indra Publishing rrp $21.95

Available in Melbourne at Hares & Hyenas Bookshop, South Yarra and in Sydney, available at The Bookshop, Darlinghurst.

The fractured jigsaw that became my life began even before I answered the phone. Over the next hours, running into years, jagged pieces of me fell away, trailing me as if signposting my existence. And yet, somehow, without me even knowing, somebody or something gently slid the pieces back into place. Pieces I thought were lost forever. But the jigsaw will never really be complete, for when you died you passed your pain to me.

This is the compelling story of a mother’s journey after her son suicides, and of her battle to learn to breathe again as she confronts the range of emotions that are left in the wake of suicide.
Even if you have not witnessed a loved one’s anguish due to mental illness, and their struggle to fit the ‘norm’ of society, you will find this story a powerful testament to the invincibility of love.

Coping with suicide: 1st Edition
Paperback, 248 pp
210 x 138 mm
ISBN 1 92078714 3
RRP $aud 28.95
ISBN-13 9781920787141

The Author
Janis Tait is mother to three and friend to many. She has been writing for 15 years, been published in literary magazines and won National Short Story Awards.

Janis works in the aged care industry and is a civil celebrant. She lives with her husband in Melbourne, Australia.

Volcanoes: Recovery from Rage offers a road map to achieving change, taking the reader through acknowledgement, information and healing, and providing valuable management mechanisms for anger control.

This is an informative and comprehensive text for those who have experienced severe trauma and for professionals in the healing sector. In clear and precise language, Lindsey Fairfield takes us on a thorough analysis covering all aspects of the human journey through healing and returning to wholeness. Hetty Johnston, People’s Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse

Released through Indra Publishing
Sept 2003 Paperback, 224 x 138 mm
Personal growth, surviving abuse
1st Edition ISBN: 0 6463970 0 1
RRP $aud24-95
ISBN(13): 9780646397009

The Author
As an adult survivor of childhood sexual abuse and a trained counsellor, Lindsey Fairfield is able to understand the need for acknowledgement, understanding and recognition of the validity of confused feelings experienced by survivors.

Lindsey conducts group sessions, teaching the process she developed to open up the spiral trap which intensifies the confused feelings resulting from childhood abuse. Focussed on recovery from the rage which is an extremely debilitating consequence of child abuse, Lindsey’s process has helped many survivors establish normal relationships and roles in our society which generally rejects anger.

Lindsey wrote this book from her personal experience as a survivor and as a counsellor, to help survivors develop the skills necessary for fitting comfortably in society, skills development which is missing from most counselling services.

A shocking phone call from their distraught daughter-in-law was how Lynda and Richard Langley learnt that their son had started his transition from a man to a woman.

The mad rush to their son’s hospital bedside, anguish and fear for his physical health, shock from the nature of his injury, and the dread of the challenges to be faced in the coming months and years…

Lynda’s account of how she adjusted to the reality that her eldest son had decided to physically become a woman is the story of a family. Tears and laughter, support and withdrawal, accompany Toni – now the eldest daughter – as she maps out her new life.

And with her all the time is Lynda, her mother. Helping to select her wardrobe, guiding her in the subtleties of speech and behaviour, and supporting her, especially in the early stages of her new life as a woman.

A mother’s story of losing a son and gaining a daughter – a transgender transition and a mother’s love.

While there have been some accounts of transgender transition published on the web, this is the first account from a parent’s perspective, and the first to be published in book form.

September 2002, 168 pp
Paperback, 216 x 138 mm
ISBN: 0 9578735 5 7
Non fiction, First Edition
RRP $aud 21.95
ISBN-13 9780957873551

The Author
Lynda Langley started taking writing lessons because she thought it would be a good thing to do. Little did she realise that in a couple of years, she would have a story to tell and her writing lessons would provide her with the means of telling it.

An ordinary middle class couple in an Australian capital city, with adult children, young grandchildren and a satisfying career life, the Langleys were coasting comfortably toward retirement. Still a long time to go, they were in no hurry, and life was fulfilling enough.

This book is Lynda’s account of how she and her husband, Richard, experienced their son’s transgender transition.