PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Cynthia Banham is a writer. She grew up in Sydney and worked there as a solicitor and, later, a journalist. Cynthia completed a Doctor of Philosophy and a Master in International Affairs at the Australian National University. In 2015 she was awarded a UQ Fellowship at the University of Queensland to research and teach in the School of Political Science and International Studies. Her first book, Liberal Democracies and the Torture of Their Citizens, based on her doctoral thesis, was published in 2017. She is currently a Visitor at the ANU's School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet). She met her husband, Michael, while reporting for the Sydney Morning Herald in the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery. Michael introduced her to Australian Rules football and she is now an ambassador for the Sydney Swans Football Club.
As her book progresses, she is able to circle closer and closer to the event -itself, to stare at the sun. The account she tenders is harrowing but clear-eyed. The inheritance Banham is determined to leave is not sorrow, but resilience anchored in a profound and fierce love. As A Certain Light powerfully attests, this was her inheritance, too. * The Australian *
