Shaking the Apple Tree

Shaking the Apple Tree is the first poetry collection by an award-winning New Zealand poet to address sexual abuse by clergy. The author takes the reader on an unusual journey, from the death of a major perpetrator in the Anglican Church to love poems to all women who have been sexually abused. The poems are framed by an introduction which examines how women have, at different times, found the Christian tradition both liberative and oppressive. Some poems may be dramatised as healing liturgies. Welcomed by survivors of clergy sexual abuse as overcoming their sense of isolation, and by ministers and counsellors as making a much-needed creative contribution in the field.

From the Foreword by the Rev. Louise Deans, MNZM

‘Jane Simpson is to be congratulated for this extraordinary book of poetry which captures the horror we experienced when we asked for justice according to the Canons and Statutes of the Church.’