Sad as Rosie Batty’s story is, our group were looking forward to reading this biography, for the simple reason that most of us were unsure (and uninformed) about Rosie, her background and her purpose. The media can skew the facts and murk the waters in a story such as this, even if it is unintentional. And this is where Rosie’s voice is so important to this book.
To put it mildly, we were amazed by her. Where was her anger? The need to blame? How did she manage to keep finding empathy for Luke’s father? After much discussion we decided that Rosie had used her profile and hard work in the domestic violence area to work through her grief and to come to terms with the loss of Luke. Strong, brave and determined, she was not going to have Luke’s death be for nothing.
Rosie’s story brought domestic violence, (and it’s partner, mental health) into our living rooms and our lives. Reading her own words about her struggles with what to do about Greg, her son’s father, is both heartbreaking and frustrating. To say she should have just left him is to simplify a very complex and multifaceted situation, and no one who has not been confronted with these issues can confidently say what is the right thing.
Topics such as these arouse strong emotions and we all felt them during this discussion. In the end we believe that women such as Rosie do not need to be judge, they need support and access to correct information and legal assistance. Her strength in working towards this goal is inspiring and is deserves to be praised. Somehow, certain members of the public and media have decided Rosie is being celebrated for losing her only child . This is where media coverage can distort and alter perception, and we must never let this happen again! (re: Lindy Chamberlain)
If you are even slightly undecided about Rosie’s story and her objectives, read her book. ( )

A Mother’s Story, a memoir, by Rosie Batty is a confronting book to read. And it’s not a book to review in the ordinary sense of the word: it’s more a matter of bringing it to people’s awareness, because of the message it sends.

International readers may not know of Rosie Batty, and why she was Australian of the Year in 2015. In 2014, her son Luke was murdered by his father Greg Anderson at a cricket ground in the small community of Tyabb, southeast of Melbourne. With parents and children still present after cricket practice, Anderson – who had a long history of violence and mental health problems and was subject to an order for arrest – stabbed the 11-year-old boy in the cricket nets. Anderson was subsequently shot by police when he resisted arrest and died in hospital from gunshot and self-inflicted knife wounds.

Despite the immediacy of her grief, Rosie Batty became a powerful campaigner for an end to domestic violence. She had battled for years to manage her estranged partner without compromising her son’s relationship with his father. As Anderson became increasingly erratic and aggressive, she had sought help from the justice system, but it had failed her in the end. Her public profile strongly influenced the Victorian government to set up the Royal Commission into Family Violence. She has also set up the Luke Batty Foundation in her son’s memory.

This memoir is part of Rosie Batty’s determination to raise awareness about the insidious way in which domestic violence entrenches a woman’s inability to escape it. A large part of the memoir is about how the relationship developed, and fell apart, and how she tried so hard to deal with the fallout, including making mistakes along the way. But overwhelmingly so, it is also a record of a mother’s love and the horrific loss of her child.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2016/12/23/a-mothers-story-a-memoir-by-rosie-batty/ ( )