{"id":256021,"date":"2026-07-13T14:28:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T11:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1kitap1.com\/en\/choice-choose-chosen-mirjam-southwell\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T14:28:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T11:28:28","slug":"choice-choose-chosen-mirjam-southwell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1kitap1.com\/en\/choice-choose-chosen-mirjam-southwell\/","title":{"rendered":"Choice Choose Chosen – Mirjam Southwell"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Researcher sighs. She doesn\u2019t want to disappear down that navel-gazing wormhole. The Forum is in sight. Coffee first, then the library, or library first, then coffee? She\u2019ll check out the Chit Chat Caf\u00e9. If buggies outnumber tables, she\u2019ll give it a miss. She\u2019s not anti-babies, toddlers, mummies or the occasional daddy. Not at all. She\u2019s read some interesting stuff in the newspapers recently \u2013 about the gap between women with and women without children, the childless ones, mothers versus the childless or childfree.<\/p>\n

Apparently, there are now two unbridgeable divides: one between women who have achieved the lofty heights of motherhood and women who have not; and one between those women who scrabble, by every which way,89 to conceive, hang onto an embryo, sustain a foetus and those who couldn\u2019t care less \u2013 women who actively choose not to have children. The Researcher, herself, is childfree. She doesn\u2019t feel less of a woman, so is, therefore, not childless. She is pleased the Writer has a good relationship with her Daughter (trouble-free if the Writer is to be believed), but she, the Researcher, is not jealous or even mildly envious (for a start, she doesn\u2019t believe any mother\/daughter relationship can be trouble-free; not after the girl-child is, what, over the age of six months?).<\/p>\n

She can\u2019t say she actively sought not to have a child nor has she actively sought to be alone (but not lonely). It\u2019s simply how life worked out. And she\u2019s happy. Do you believe her? Lots of you won\u2019t. And her granny didn\u2019t. Added to which, her granny very much wanted to be a great granny \u2013 and to become one, she, her granddaughter, would have to be married.<\/p>\n

No child should be born out of wedlock, ever. Thinking about it now, the Researcher isn\u2019t too sure why her granny felt this so strongly. Perhaps it was as a result of her experiences working as a midwife. Perhaps she\u2019d removed freshly delivered babies from unmarried mothers; witnessed their distress as babies were taken away never to be seen again.<\/p>\n

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First published in Great Britain in 2026 by The Book Guild Ltd Unit E2 Airfield Business Park, Harrison Road, Market Harborough, Leicestershire. LE16 7UL Tel: 0116 2792299 www.bookguild.co.uk Email: info@bookguild.co.uk Copyright \u00a9 2026 Mirjam Southwell The right of Mirjam Southwell to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.<\/p>\n

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. The manufacturer\u2019s authorised representative in the EU for product safety is Authorised Rep Compliance Ltd, 71 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin D02 P593 Ireland (www.arccompliance.com) This work is a work of fiction.<\/p>\n

The events portrayed in it, while based on historical figures and interwoven with some factual content, are the product of the author\u2019s imagination. ISBN 978 1835744 987 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 1kitap1.com\/en To Sophie, with love 1kitap1.com\/en Although this novel was inspired by real events, and the lives and work of real people, it is very much a work of fiction and should be read as such. 1kitap1.com\/en Prologue Roe versus Wade (1973) is overturned on 24th June 2022.<\/p>\n

This makes the Writer angry. Very, very angry. Irrationally so, some might say. After all, apart from the fact that she lives in the UK and not the USA, the right to choose to have an abortion, or not, is a reproductive right she will never have to grapple with for herself. However, irrational or not, she is very, very angry. She jabs her mobile; her daughter answers: Hi Ma.<\/p>\n

Yes, Ma, it\u2019s rubbish. Yes, Ma, it\u2019s outrageous. Ma, it\u2019s my birthday soon. Yes, Ma, you\u2019re right to be angry. I can\u2019t believe it either. It\u2019s a Friday, my birthday, it\u2019s on a Friday. I can take a day\u2019s annual leave and travel up on the Thursday evening, if that\u2019s okay? Paula who? No, I didn\u2019t know. No, I don\u2019t know her work, sorry. Yes, Paula Rego, send me the link to her obituary. So, it\u2019s okay if I come for my birthday? Yes, I\u2019ll have a look at her abortion series.<\/p>\n

Yes, it sounds really interesting. Gotta go, speak soon. Love you too. Bye.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.<\/em><\/p>\n

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