ABSTRACT
In her novel The Wild Girl, Michèle Roberts’ portrays the dynamic relationship between mother and child. I use an extract from her novel here to symbolise the situation in which my interviewees found themselves at the time of their children’s pending home-leaving; I have argued that at this point, the mother/child relationship was in a state of flux. Roberts’ brief extract conveys that the mother is an active participant in, but also a passive witness to, the actions of the daughter, who she perceives is preparing to separate from her.
