Searching for Grace
Carol Henderson & Heather Tovey

	Biographies Autobiography, History, Biography, Relationships, Personal Growth Price: $39.99 Availability: now Format: 304 pages, soft cover with flaps, 165mm x 230mm ISBN: 9781877577017 Add this book to your shopping bag

About the Book

“I don’t remember when Mummy first told me that she was not my real mother, but her words, “You can call me Mummy, but I’m not your real mummy,” are part of the fabric of my earliest memories. For a time the contradictory meaning of her words registers only on a subconscious level. Mummy is Mummy. I don’t comprehend anything beyond that, nor do I want to. All the same, the seeds of vague unease and fear have been planted.”

Throughout her childhood Heather longs to find and know her mother. Ironically she is invited to meet her birth mother at different times, never dreaming that this beautiful, assured and immensely wealthy woman is the mother she seeks.

How their true relationship stayed hidden for so many years is a question Heather Tovey, who was born in London and spent most of her life in New Zealand, and her daughter Carol set out to answer.  Intimate and often amusing details entwine the lives of those involved, but at the centre of them is the fascinating and obsessively manipulative woman who was Heather’s mother.

About the Author

Heather Tovey was born in London in 1911 and raised by an elderly governess. At 18 she secretly married artist Gordon Tovey, who went on to revolutionise the way art was taught in New Zealand schools.

In her early 60s Heather finally uncovered the identity of her mother, and in 1975 she travelled to England to pursue her quest to find her family. In later years she began to record memories of her life. The truth behind all the secrecy is the subject of Searching for Grace. 

Heather died in 2004, aged 93.

Carol Henderson was born in Dunedin in 1935. She is Heather and Gordon’s only child. She trained and worked as a specialist in art and craft, and as a primary teacher. In 1998, having retired to follow more personal creative ventures, she published a biography of her father, Gordon Tovey. She also worked with Heather to record her early memories.

In 1980, with husband Neil, Carol travelled to England on the first of several trips to meet with Heather’s newly discovered relations and seek further answers. 

Carol and Neil live in Wellington, New Zealand. They have four sons and five grandchildren.