About the Author

CAROLINE WHITEHEAD
Caroline Whitehead (née Marshall) was born in London, England. Abandoned in infancy, she was raised as an orphan in the County of Kent. At the age of sixteen she was sent out to work as a domestic servant. With World War II in progress she was soon conscripted into an aircraft 'munitions factory in the County of Surrey. She married in 1944. When hostilities ended, she enrolled in a commercial college. After emigrating to Canada in 1967, a long and emotional journey began as she regularly travelled between England and Canada over the years, in a desperate attempt to learn the truth about her parents, and find her missing family. Caroline has one child, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. She lives in Sidney, British Columbia, Canada.

About The Book

SURVIVING THE SHADOWS
Sidney author's tale exposes emotional hardship -- and her lifelong quest to track down parents and siblings

Caroline Whitehead's Surviving the Shadows is the true and inspiring story of a young girl brought up in the strict life of a Catholic orphanage in the 1920s and 1930s, and of her struggle for emotional survival. Told by the nuns she was an orphan, and discouraged from asking more, Caroline 'Carrie' Marshall nevertheless set out to search for her roots.

Caroline's monumental struggle against the Catholic authorities in her search for kith and kin lasted over sixty years. Gradually, with the help of genealogists, secrets were prised from the archives and the mysteries began to unravel one bizarre piece at a time. In 1990, Caroline finally learned the identity of her parents, whom she had spent a lifetime searching for, only to learn both had recently died. A further discovery sent shock waves through her: the birth certificate of a previously-unknown elder brother. Born in 1919, he would be seventy-two years old. Was it possible that, by some miracle, he was still alive?

"Most would prefer to put it at the back of one's mind, rather than acknowledge the stigma of being raised in an orphanage and being denied a birthright," says Caroline Whitehead. "But, for social history, these stories must be told."

"By the time I reached sixteen years of age, I had spent all but two years of my young life in the somewhat questionable care of the nuns at an orphanage in a small village in the County of Kent. From there, I was sent 'out into the world' of which I knew little about, and for which I had not been prepared. My first place of employment was a reformatory school for unruly boys staffed by Christian Brothers, some of whom seemed intent on breaking their vows of chastity...."

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Reviews/Appearances

RECENT AND UPCOMING APPEARANCES

There will be a book-signing at Shopper's Drug, Sidney, on Thursday July 30 between 10a.m. - 2p.m.
August 27, at 7 a.m., Caroline Whitehead will be speaking at the Rotary breakfast meeting in Sidney.
September 9 at Beechwood, Sidney, 2.30 p.m., the author will be giving a speech.

To arrange an interview with the author, please contact Bruce at Agio Publishing House.

About The Book

ROWLAND: A HEART OF SUNSHINE
Rowland: A Heart of Sunshine is tribute to living with grace despite orphanage upbringing

Sidney author concludes the unique family saga begun in Surviving the Shadows
(Sidney, BC) -- In the sequel to her 2009 book, Surviving the Shadows, author Caroline Whitehead meets her long-lost elder brother, Rowland Marshall, for the first time in 1991 when he is 72 years old. Rowland had heard about Caroline's existence when he was thirteen, but had been denied any details. He'd searched for her in vain for almost sixty years.

Caroline tells Rowland about how she was raised as an orphan by nuns, forced into war work in 1942, and of her struggle to exist on low wages and wartime rations. He learns about her thwarted political ambitions, emigration to Canada, raising a family, and always searching for her roots...

Caroline reveals to her brother the existence of three other siblings raised as orphans -- William, Kathleen and Elizabeth -- about whom he was totally unaware. Rowland's boyhood vision of living with his sister Caroline becomes a reality when the two of them decide to share a home together in Canada. This realized dream continued for the next sixteen years.

"I wanted this book to reveal the characters, events and settings that portray an era and culture that few today could imagine," says Caroline Whitehead. "Each of the siblings had a unique response to being raised as an orphan, and I wanted to record how that affected their character for the rest of their lives. Rowland and I had identical telepathic senses that allowed two siblings who had been complete strangers to understand each other in their later years, sharing laughter, fun and sorrow..."

Read an Excerpt

Check soon at Google's Book Search.
Or, download this PDF sampler of the first pages.

Buy this Book

Buy the eBook edition as PDF download at www.lulu.com/content/10126252