Although Mothering Heights was released in the United States towards the middle of April 2009 the book was not available in New Zealand for several weeks after this. The official book launch was held on Saturday May 9th at the Rawene Centre in Auckland and was attended by 95 people.
Sadly, with Susan currently living in England, she was not one of them! However a number of Susan’s family were on hand to help celebrate the release of the book on the eve of Mother’s Day. Susan’s daughter, Ruth Brereton Rogers (pictured : top left) gave a delightful speech on Susan’s behalf that went some way to making up for Susan’s absence.
Bernard Brown, law lecturer, author, and organising member for the New Zealand Society of Authors was also on hand to give his congratulations and endorsement to the book. In his speech Bernard admitted to being far from the target audience for the book, but in spite of this had read the book twice and had much to say in its praise. Bernard (pictured : top middle) is a long-standing friend of Keitha’s and has given her much writing encouragement over the years so it was great to have him involved on the night.
The evening was a magical one for Keitha (pictured : top right) who has been writing for many years without publishing success (until now!). It gave her the opportunity to share the blessing of Mothering Heights with family and friends and to give thanks to all those who had been inspirational in its writing – especially Susan and the women who shared their stories as part of the book.
