The new edition of Searching for Charmian, Suzanne Chick’s autobiographical account of discovering her birth mother’s identity, is published at a moment when the reputations of two of the book’s subjects are in their ascendency.

The book was first published in 1994. With its publication, Chick emerged from what she saw as a quiet life into the public spotlight. She eloquently told of her discovery that the author and journalist Charmian Clift, then nineteen years old and unwed, had surrendered Chick immediately after her birth on Christmas Day in 1942. Reviewing the book in the May 1994 issue of ABR, Helen Eliot admitted to initial cynicism (‘crass cashing-in on a famous and alluring name’) which gave way to admiration.