The Billings Enigma

This dynamic book, with a Foreword by His Eminence, George Cardinal Pell, tells the story of two remarkable Melbourne doctors who developed a method of natural fertility regulation in response to the needs of Catholic families in Melbourne which subsequently achieved its greatest success in the largest Communist country in the world, China. With missionary zeal Drs John and Evelyn Billings took their Billings Ovulation Method to the world, from the bustling slums of India to behind the Iron Curtain in the days of the Cold War, from the dust and heat of Africa to the carnival atmosphere of Brazil, travelling hundreds of thousands of air miles over more than a quarter of a century.



Meanwhile they each had busy medical practices, raised a family of nine children and wrote books about the Method, one of which sold over a million copies and was translated into 22 languages. All of this at a time of unprecedented social upheaval as a result of “sexual liberation” and the coming of “The Pill”.



Personal friends to three popes, the Drs Billings have left the world a remarkable legacy of knowledge which assists in protecting women’s reproductive health and is now continued by the work of WOOMB International Ltd. 



Tess Livingstone, a journalist for The Australian and The Weekend Australian, is the author and editor of 12 other books on business, education, theology and a children’s book. Her work has been published in Australia, the UK and the USA.