'A willing horse' was how Norma Ashton-Warner often described herself; who worked hard for others and without complaint. She married in Depression-era New Zealand, and her brood eventually grew to eleven, raised on farms from Manawatu to the shadows of Mt Taranaki and then on to the isolated northern West Coast of Omamari. Like the pioneering women before her, she found herself caught in a spiral of necessary self-sacrifice.
Widowhood brought out Norma's grit, but also a ruthlessness in trying to cast off the shackles of motherhood. Heather, her last born, describes a vivacious, demanding and at times reckless woman whose deep frustration at getting less from life than she felt she deserved caused brutal emotional fallout for those around her.
The Willing Horse is a daughter's search for a fuller picture of her mother, a way to understand her, appreciate her, and eventually forgive her. It is a story of insight and healing across generations, for anyone who has loved a complicated parent and wondered who they really were.
