Award-winning story of hope: review of Forged with Flames

FWF_COVERA review of Forged with Flames by Ann Fogarty and Anne Crawford, published by Wild Dingo Press. (Forged with Flames was the winner of the 2013 Australian Christian Book of the Year.)

Forged with Flames opens with a blast. Momentum, anticipation and dread gather with every sentence of the first chapter, and the reader is drawn into the drama of Ann Fogarty’s life immediately.

An English woman who grew up in Lancashire, Ann shares the story of her life and how it was changed by the horrendous Ash Wednesday bushfires in February 1983. A mother with two young daughters at the time, Ann recounts their experience of coming through the firestorm and the struggle for survival in the months and years that followed.

Knowledge of bush fires and the damage they can wreak is ingrained in every Australian. But not every Australian has the vivid, dangerous and deadly experience Ann describes in her book. With almost a morbid fascination, you read the next word, the next sentence, empathising with her experience of the lead up to disaster—oppressive heat, smoke in the distance—until in vivid detail you are in the fire with her.

After the explosive opening chapter of the book, Ann describes her early life carefully, with an attention to detail that enables the Aussie reader to picture the unfamiliar images of an English childhood in the 1950s and 60s, and sympathise and bond with the girl she was. As Ann reflects on her childhood and the way it formed her character, the reader realises along with her the importance of the lessons she learnt; that she had a “tenacious fighting spirit” and that she “thrived on a challenge and on achieving the goal that went with it”; that she struggled through the agony of socially dysfunctional teenage years.

A pivotal moment in Ann’s life came when at 18 she turned to God for security and acceptance. Ann recalls a pamphlet she read in a little Anglican church in London, close to where she was working as a nanny. “It talked about how God cared for everyone and wanted us to turn to Him for help with all our difficulties. I felt as if it were speaking directly to me. In the circumstances, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.” Ann began talking to God as she had talked to none other about her struggles and experienced immediate relief. She concludes, “so began a relationship that would come to mean everything to me as the years went by.”

Moving from her early life and marriage and subsequent move to Australia, Ann turns to describing her journey through severe suffering and recovery from the terrible fires of Ash Wednesday. Her honesty and detailed recollection of her struggle give the reader glimpses into the way her character—her very being—was tried and tested, over and over again. Indeed, her character and life was ‘forged with flames’.

Forged with Flames bears a resemblance to Joni Eareckson Tada’s best-selling autobiography, Joni, which recounts her spinal injury struggle and subsequent struggle with quadriplegia. In a similar manner, Forged with Flames gives any reader a deeper understanding of the reality people endure when fighting for their lives—initially in cheating death, but also the longer but no less painful process of learning to live again. The insight Ann gives reveals the enormous importance of friends and family, the kindness and care of professionals and strangers, and the consistency of relationships which is so important in knowing how to support and care for others when tragedy strikes.

Ann’s story is inspiring, not because it is unrelentingly positive or moves from tragedy to happily ever after; but because it reveals how one individual—complete with strengths and weaknesses, admirable qualities and character flaws—moves through inexplicable tragedy and survives. Courage, determination and faith are key factors in Ann’s story, and as she concludes, she acknowledges another essential part of her life and future: the reality of hope.

Karen studied theology at Sydney Missionary and Bible college, and is currently on maternity leave from the publication team at Eternity. She loves reading and is enjoying sharing the joy of books with her six month old daughter.