Switched at Birth

Switched at Birth

By Jessica Pitchford

Jonathan Ball. R226

Imagine discovering your two-year-old isn’t yours; that he’d been swapped at birth. It happened to Megs Clinton-Parker and Sandy Dawkins. Journalist Jessica Pitchford tells their stories with all their ramifications of class anxieties, bitterness, resentment and anger. Everyone had an opinion, but there were no quick fixes. The boys were born in 1989, so now they are adults who, like their mothers and extended families, bear the scars. The best outcome could only be a fragile acceptance of what happened. It makes for a gripping, moving tale that will leave you horrified at the effect of a moment’s carelessness by an unidentified nurse.