Email your queries to Diana (please include hometown details) at: diana@dianacambridge.co.uk or send them to: Helpline, Writing Magazine, Warners Group Publications plc, 5th Floor, 31-32 Park Row, Leeds LS1 5JD. She will answer as many letters as she can on the page, but regrets that she cannot enter into individual correspondence. Publication of answers may take several months. Helpline cannot personally answer queries such as where to offer work, or comment on manuscripts, which you are asked not to send.
Q What happens when a new-born is abandoned in the street, or a park? I know the police search and appeal for the mother to come forward, but if she never does, who looks after the child? Does the person who found the baby have a special relationship and, if he or she wanted to adopt, would they be favoured for this? How long do police and social services wait before they decided the child can be adopted? I’m asking this because I think the “21st century abandoned baby” may be a good theme for a novel or short story. Despite the dozens of ways today in which a vulnerable mother-to-be can be helped, it seems some still resort to the Victorian method of simply leaving the baby on a doorstep, park bench or other public places.