Margaret (Peggy) Reynolds charts her own journey to adopting a child and explores what drives a woman to become a mother.

Single, in her mid-forties and having experienced a sudden early menopause, Reynolds asked herself, ‘What is it that I would like in my life that I could have now, and could not have had before?’ The realisation came quietly, and clearly; she decided to adopt a child.

But the preparation for adoption was arduous and the scrutiny intense. There were questions about past lives, about her own childhood, heritage, capabilities, expectations and identity.

What makes a mother, and a home? How can the legacies of childhood affect the experience of parenting? And how might the pervasive nature of childhood trauma be overcome by a mother’s determination to love?

Margaret Reynold’s The Wild Track: Adopting, Mothering, Belonging is published by Doubleday. Buy a copy from Waterstones, our bookselling partners.

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Festival of Ideas: Margaret Reynolds, What Makes a Mother?