Oranges and Sunshine: Empty Cradles - Softcover

"It is a story that defies belief." (Independent)

"The secrets of the lost children of Britain may never have been revealed if it had not been for [the actions of] Margaret Humphreys." (Sunday Times)

"A modern Florence Nightingale." (Sydney Morning Herald)

"A truly astonishing, haunting, real-life detective story." (She (Australia))

"Brought tears to my eyes. It is impossible to read...without thinking "These could be my parents. These could be my children."...Despite the sadness and anger at its centre, hope remains the principle message of this remarkable book." (Terry Waite The Times)

Also published as Empty Cradles.

In 1986 Margaret Humphreys, a Nottingham social worker, investigated a woman's claim that, aged four, she had been put on a boat to Australia by the British government. At first incredulous, Margaret discovered that this was just the tip of an enormous iceberg. Up to 150,000 children, some as young as three years old, had been deported from children's homes in Britain and shipped off to a 'new life' in distant parts of the Empire, right up until as recently as 1970.

Many were told that their parents were dead, and parents often believed that their children had been adopted in Britain. In fact, for many children it was to be a life of horrendous physical and sexual abuse far away from everything they knew. Margaret reveals how she unravelled this shocking secret and how it became her mission to reunite these innocent and unwilling exiles with their families in Britain before it was too late.