Cirrus@Austlit

'The cuckoo is what is known as a brood parasite. It lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, who unwittingly hatch the chick and feed it, usually at the expense of their own young. Cuckoo is also a colloquialism for mental illness.

'Using these metaphors, Anna Liebzeit tells the story of her maternal grandmother Winnie, whose mental instability and involuntary confinement in the notorious Melbourne mental hospital Larundel meant that her children were brought up as wards of the state. This lack of parenting led to her daughter Diane having no positive role model to use in the upbringing of her own daughter.

'And now, a pregnant Anna ponders the nature/nurture debate, worrying whether 'bad' parenting can be overcome. Is it instead destined to perpertuate itself down through the generations?'

Source : ABC Radio National's Airplay website, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/airplay/
Sighted: 08/09/2008