Maude, retired scientist, trips and hits her head. She wakes in a geriatric ward, far from home, without speech, her world upside down, with memories of Uncle Harold. As she recovers, long walks into the nearby sand dunes, hospital staff, suggest transfer to The Knoll, a public mental health unit - an economy which her cousin Gerald and his wife, Poppy welcome. Maude joins group therapy for women victims of sexual abuse. Leaders, Susan and Lavender, their charges: anorexic teenager, Silvie, her complaint of assault dismissed; Carmel, dissociative/suicidal, empty nest and the rest of the women's group meet daily. Down the corridor a men's therapy group for gender transitioners and other court referrals begins. Maude sneaks in, enjoys the session; the men help her discover that she has forgotten more than a decade of memories. And some key technological advances, too. The Registrar keeps an eye on Maude's memory issues, her preoccupation with Uncle Harold. The visits from her relatives, Gerald and Poppy. Long lost objects which reappear: her string of pearls, handbag... The beach hut key. In the men's group, former priest, Nifty, is recognised by Silvie as her discharged assailant. He becomes the unwitting catalyst for healing: for Silvie's scorn, for Carmel's obsession. For Maude to rediscover her career, Uncle Harold's story, cousin Gerald's secret and to accept her new life in Australia.
Tired of writing reports, dismissive returns from academic publishing houses, marking student essays about historic abuse, Marion Steed changed her name, then wrote a one act play about recovered memories - a topic of interest at the time. Lacking access to a production company, she submitted the play to a local literary award panel. To her surprise the play was given first prize and staged. A year later a similar result, this time first prize for poetry on a related topic. Marion's novel, Rough Places, published in 2014 records life in a NSW city in the 80's. The anniversary of the earthquake of Boxing day, 1989 and post-millennial population growth in the city have given the novel a renewed interest. After years of practice in Psychology, Marion saw a need to understand the dynamics of historic abuse. Her second novel, Silence and Slow Time, published in 2017, follows Maude's recovery of speech, and with it, memories, after a head injury. Far from home, in a state-funded mental health facility, she meets an anorexic teen, a suicidal single mum, controlling therapists, a priest - an artful dodger of the long arm of the law, two gentle gender transitioners and a kindly registrar who leads a lively community for victims of historic abuse. Here Maude retrieves her faculties, makes peace with her family narratives and embraces her new life in... Occupying forces bring secrets. Secrets that, once they leave, take a long time to resurface. Valentine's return to Lake Macquarie brings him face to face with family history, supressed during the occupation by Allied forces following Pearl Harbor. Fire Angels, will be Marion's third novel.
