Indra publishing

It was pleasant to note the renewed interest in Lynda Langley’s autobiographical book, He’s My Daughter, in which she shares her experience of her adult son’s transgender transition. 

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.

“Tony’s wife was on the phone, ringing from their interstate home. My husband’s face drained to ashen. Tony had totally castrated himself. He had lost a lot of blood and was now in surgery.”

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.