A collection of five moving and inspirational books. The books have all been published in the past several years and were done so at different times. Over 1,450 pages of enthralling and inspiring biographies.
Childhood Interrupted: Growing Up in an Industrial School, Kathleen O'Malley
In 1950, Kathleen O'Malley and her two sisters were legally abducted from their mother and placed in an industrial school ran by the Sisters of Mercy order of nuns, who also ran the notorious Magdalene Homes.
The rape of eight-year-old Kathleen by a neighbour had triggered their removal - the Irish authorities ruling that her mother must have been negligent. They were only allowed a strictly supervised visit once a year, until they were permitted to leave the harsh and cruel regime of the institution at the age of sixteen.
But Kate survived her traumatic childhood and escaped her past by leaving for England and then Australia when the British government offered a scheme to encourage settlement there. Fleeing her past again, Kate worked as a governess in Paris and then returned to England where she trained as a beautician at Elizabeth Arden. She married and had a son. A turning point in Kate's life came when she applied to become a magistrate and realised that she had to confront her hidden personal history and make it public. This is her inspiring story.
Everybody's Daughter, Nobody's Child, Jane Lapotaire
Jane knew she was a war baby because Mummy Grace said all war babies had to drink the treacly black malt from The Clinic every morning. Then Mummy Grace told Jane she wasn't her mummy. Her mummy was a lady who lived in Le Tookay. Or was it Cassablanka?
An exceptional memoir, written by one of our most outstanding actresses, Everybody's Daughter, Nobody's Child is a vivid and moving chronicle of childhood.
The Road to Nab End: An Extraordinary Northern Childhood, William Woodruff
From his birth in the carding-room of a cotton mill until he ran away to London, William Woodruff lived in extreme poverty in the heart of Blackburn's weaving community. The Road to Nab End is the wonderful telling of these childhood years. It is an autobiography brimming with anecdote, and above all, a story of human triumph against the odds.
A Teenager's Journey: Surviving Adolescence, Richard B. Pelzer
At the end of A Brother's Journey, Richard Pelzer's mother and three brothers are moving to Salt Lake City, Utah. He has the choice of joining them - unwanted - or staying behind.
But where can he live? What can he live on? Defeated - he follows them. So continues Richard's alcoholic mother's physical abuse of Richard. But gradually he is growing up - not just in years but stature. His mother cannot treat him in quite the same way and mostly it is with neglect.
Richard runs away and tries to commit suicide several times, and he has a stint with a foster home. He turns to soft drugs, then hard drugs. Finally he goes to live with John and Darlene Nichols who try to show him some family love.
At the age of 21 he gets a full time job and tries to learn to be a big brother to the foster parents' children. And begins to get his life together...An uplifting and inspiring story about someone who retains his religion and regains basic morals - despite everything going against him.
The Ghosts of Yesteryear, Kathleen Dayus
Kathleen Dayus returns to her childhood years in a Birmingham slum and life before marriage. The author recalls the support and affection of her father and elder sister Mary; the rivalries and friendships of her schooldays; her early working experiences and romantic encounters.
Click to Enlarge
