About Maisie
That’s not my real name
But you knew that.
Maisie MacDonald is the pen name of a social worker who has spent many years working with children and families in England. The people and cases in the book are invented. The job is not.
That is the official version. It is accurate and it tells you nothing, like a good case note.
Why there is no photograph
Because the book is about the job and the people in it, and not about me.
Because the families I have worked with did not agree to be a chapter in somebody’s life story, and the only way to be sure they aren’t is to make everything up and then stand well back.
Because social workers who write under their own names tend to find that the writing gets quieter.
And because I look nothing like the car, which is a shame, as the car is doing very well.
So you get the drawing. The glasses are accurate. The tea is accurate. The rest is generous.
There is a longer version of this in the notebook: Why I use a pen name.
What I can tell you
I drink my tea too strong and leave it too long. I have opinions about which biscuits are worth walking to the good kitchen for. I have cried in more car parks than I have parked in.
I have been lost in a council building for eleven minutes while holding a map of the council building.
I have sat in living rooms where I was the least welcome person who had ever come through the door, and in one or two where somebody put the kettle on. I remember both kinds.
I believe most parents love their children. I believe love is not always enough. I have never found a way to hold those two things that did not hurt.
I believe in foster carers, contact supervisors, school receptionists who notice things, and the people who answer the emergency duty phone at three in the morning.
I believe in lists.
The book
We Don’t Steal Babies is a novel about a first year in child protection. I wrote it because most people meet social work on the worst day of their lives, or in a headline, and I wanted them to meet it in a story first.
If you are a social worker, I hope it makes you feel less alone. If you are about to become one, I hope it helps. If you are neither, I hope you will be a bit nicer to us at parties.
The column
There is a Maisie who is eleven years older, and she has a column. The Secret Social Worker is in Social Work World on Saturdays. She still has the cat.
Getting in touch
I read everything. I answer what I can. I give interviews in writing, which suits me, as I am better on paper.
Maisie x