Orange mother of two Kelly Rimmer is an internationally-renowned author and her third book  The Secret Daughter was published earlier this month.

In the fictional novel, a woman announces her pregnancy to her family and discovers that she was adopted. 

The book also covers the perspective of her birth mother, who was forced into adoption at a fictional maternity home located in the Orange region, and her adoptive mother who worked within the system.  

Ms Rimmer said the Senate inquiry, which exposed the practice of forced adoption of children born to women out of wedlock in the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s and in 2012 and resulted in a formal apology by then prime minister Julia Gillard, was the inspiration for the novel. 

“I had been seeing it in the news and seeing some of the submissions and got fascinated by the topic,” Ms Rimmer said. 

“I was fascinated by the injustice of it and that it happened so recently. It would be shocking if it happened at any point in history, but I was amazed by the fact that this happened in my lifetime.”

She said being a mother of  two children also drove inspiration. 

“As a writer, you draw on your own experiences and I happily haven’t experienced any of the difficult things that are covered in the book,” Ms Rimmer said. “But I think my own natural love for my children came through as I wrote about exploring what it would be like to be a mother in either of the situations as an adoptive mother or as an adoptee of a child.”

Ms Rimmer will be signing copies of The Secret Daughter at The Agrestic Grocer from 6pm to 7pm this evening. 

“I think it would be interesting for people from Orange to read a book that is set here,” she said. 

ashlea.pritchard@fairfaxmedia.com.au