And of how Nicola battled with her own alcoholism but, determined to throw off her mother's legacy, came through a survivor.

    Her groom was a farmer almost four times her age. Despite a pre-nuptial agreement guaranteeing that there would be no sex, her husband raped her repeatedly. He also beat her. Although she made desperate pleas for help, the legal system, the police and the clergy failed to come to her aid. Sold into Marriage is the story of that girl's loveless marriage, as told to journalist Sean Boyne, her rape, subsequent pregnancy and suicide attempt and her eventual escape to London and freedom.

    "I began life, it would seem, as some kind of Grimm's fairy tale creature, large and oafish, undesirable, grossly imperfect. Neatly penned in my baby book were the words, 'Debbie was a fat, unattractive baby.' Fat and ugly aside, my life was fairly normal for a couple of years. It would be a while before the abuse began. Before the smoking and pills, the rage and rebellion, the alcoholism and cancer, the broken marriages. In those first uncomplicated years I could have set out on any of a dozen different paths toward an orderly life . . . it was not to be. . . . But this is not a story of defeat."This is a book about surviving. It's about hope. It's about how each of us-ordinary, imperfect, damaged-can dream and heal. This book weaves the humorous, often outrageous, always courageous tapestry of Debrah Constance's life. Voted Woman of the Year by the State of California Legislature for founding A Place Called Home, (APCH) an organization providing services to at-risk inner-city kids in South Los Angeles, she proves that anyone can rise above life's obstacles and make a better life for themselves-and others.

    Finding it was like discovering that I really did exist after all . It was as if someone was saying ‘No, it wasn’t all in your imagination, that childhood really did happen, and it happened to you.’ Brought up in South London by violent and abusive parents, the Roche children knew only cruelty, neglect, starvation and squalor. As one of ten and regularly beaten, Peter searched dustbins for food and slept rough when he couldn't face going home. It was survival at all costs, every child for itself. Expelled from school at the age of 14, Peter’s life of petty crime landed him in borstal – and exposed him to yet more sickening abuse.Then, years later, a chance meeting with a social worker led to his discovery of a photograph - a portrait, taken by Lord Snowdon, of a toddler dressed in rags. It was an image that had shocked the world. The boy in the picture was Peter. Unloved is a harrowing account of a shattered childhood, told by a man who has finally found the courage to speak out. This is his story.

    But from the age of six she was targeted by a vicious, manipulative but invisible enemy — and her life became a living hell.Before long she was suspended from school, alienated from her friends, completely bewildered and utterly terrified. Her happy childhood had been destroyed forever.For her mother, Lyndsey, it was a life beyond her worst nightmares.Her little girl, the daughter she loved so much, seemed to have transformed overnight — into a child she hardly recognized. A child she almost feared. Suddenly, Lyndsey was fighting to keep her family together — and to save her daughter’s sanity.But then the horrific truth started to become clear. And both Lyndsey and Sarah discovered they had been the innocent victims of the most horrifying betrayal imaginable…

    I knew he would never stop, so I just had to do what I could to survive." Mandy Thomas was just 18 when she met the man who would change her life forever. She was soon under his spell – and then her real nightmare began. Mandy found herself part of a cruel and violent relationship that she couldn’t escape. Until one day he went too far… You Can’t Run is Mandy’s searingly honest and moving true story.

    She was wrong. Her relative came too. And, as her parents had to work nights, Jayne's abuser became her 'carer'.Raped repeatedly by him, beaten, abused and battered, Jayne's life was a living hell.One thing kept Jayne sane: the love and care of her older brother, Stuart. But he had demons of his own, and Jayne watched in helpless despair as the boy who had always protected her turned into an adult consumed by rage. Out of control and on the edge, Stuart went on to commit one of the most terrible crimes of recent years....DESTROYED is the heart-stopping tale of an innocence destroyed and a family torn apart - told by a woman who has finally managed to confront her harrowing past.

    She never laughed, or cried, or uttered any sound. Despite efforts to reach her, Jadie remained locked in her own troubled world—until one remarkable teacher persuaded her to break her self-imposed silence. Nothing in all of Torey Hayden's experience could have prepared her for the shock of what Jadie told her—a story too horrendous for Torey's professional colleagues to acknowledge. Yet a little girl was living in a nightmare, and Torey Hayden responded in the only way she knew how—with courage, compassion, and dedication—demonstrating once again the tremendous power of love and the relilience of the human spirit.

    A world where murder, torture and fights to the death are the norm. Where the guards turn a blind eye to the lethal weapons prisoners carry . . . and use almost daily.Hell's Prisoner is the powerful story of one man's battle to survive in some of the world's cruellest and most inhumane prisons. Christopher Parnell, wrongly accused of drug trafficking, found himself catapulted into the maelstrom of madness and degradation that exists within Indonesian jails. Surrounded by murderers and sadistic violent criminals, he soon learned that life can be as cheap as a bowl of rice or a cigarette.During his imprisonment, Parnell was subjected to unthinkable sessions of torture, both physical and psychological. Left to starve and fight every day for his survival, he was forced to eat everything from cockroaches to human flesh.This is an incredible tale of fatalism and bureaucracy, of corruption and the horrors of prison, but most of all it is a no-holds-barred account of what the human spirit can endure.

    When a freak accident saw his father burn to death in front of him, Joe was left at the mercy of his mother. Without the love of his friend and brother, he wouldn't have survived. With them, he went on to spend his life fighting child abuse. Joe was just five years old and the horrific scene literally struck him dumb. He didn't speak for four and a half years, which meant he was unable to ask anyone for help as his life turned into a living hell. His schizophrenic mother and two of his older brothers spent the following years beating him, raping him and locking him in the cellar at the family home. Fed on scraps that he was forced to lick from the floor, he was sometimes left naked in the dark for three days without human contact. Unable to read or write, all Joe could do to communicate his suffering was draw pictures. The violence and sexual abuse grew in severity as more people, including his stepfather, were invited to use him in any way they chose. The only thing that saved Joe was the kindness of his elder brother and his only school friend, both of whom showed him that love was possible even in the darkest of situations. At fourteen he finally found the courage to run away, hiding in a hut by a railway line, fed on scraps by some local children who found him. Joe's is the ultimate insider's story, casting light into the darkest of hidden worlds, and a truly inspirational account of how one small boy found the strength to overcome almost impossible odds and become a remarkable man. Now that he has found his voice again, Joe speaks out against child abuse and helps support and protect other children whose lives have been blighted by it.

    So much evil was done there was a voice inside me shouting, "Justice".'With no one to confide in, Kathy suffered in silence as she was battered by her father and molested by local boys.At the age of eight, she was torn from her family and incarcerated in a series of Catholic homes. When she was sent to a psychiatric unit, she suffered terrifying electric- shock therapy and further cruelty at the hands of her supposed carers.After ending up in a Magdalen laundry, she fell victim to sexual abuse and gave birth to baby Annie just weeks before her fourteenth birthday. Don't Ever Tell is Kathy's harrowing account of her ruined childhood and of her subsequent fight for justice.

     However, as readers of the first two volumes of this series will know, her childhood was hardly the loving, supportive, preparatory period it should have been. Instead of family dinners and piano recitals, there were shattered dishes and abusive parents. Instead of trips to the museum, there were trips to TV studios - to be molested by celebrities. In short, her childhood was nothing short of a nightmare. Should it really be any surprise then, after such a traumatic baptism into life, that her first foray into the adult world was hardly an unmitigated success? From living in squalor to racking up debts, her new-found independence forced her face-to-face with many of life's grim realities. And despite waiting all her life for her freedom, she soon realised that a world without the institutional bars she was so accustomed to was just too much of a jungle. And every jungle has its predators... But what was a girl to do? Regress back to an abusive enslavement? Or continue moving forward in a world that seemed so backward? She needed a friend - and fast. Naturally, her understandable distrust of others didn't make things easy. Not to mention her warped idea of love. In the end though, her determination proved the deciding factor. As far as she was concerned, she'd performed her final "favour", and cried the last of her tears. But just when she thought she'd finally left her demons behind, she found herself at the mercy of unsavoury characters yet again - and this time, without anyone to turn to... DISCLAIMER: This is a true story of child abuse, and as such, reader discretion should be advised. Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

    It’s a desperate act, a cry for help, but his parent’s reaction – good riddance – speaks volumes. Immediately Casey’s hackles are up for this poor child: it seems he either comes to live with the Watsons, or he’ll be sent to a children’s home.Spencer is the middle child of four siblings. His parents claim all their other kids are ‘normal’ and that Spencer was born ‘vicious and evil’. Casey and her family are disgusted – kids aren’t born evil, they get damaged. Although when vigilante neighbours start to take action and their landlord threatens eviction, Casey is stretched to the limits, trying desperately to hold on to this boy who causes so much pain and destruction.Casey is determined to try and understand what Spencer is going through and help him find the loving home he is so desperately searching for. But it’s only when Spencer’s mother gets in touch with social services for the first time that gradually everything starts to make sense.

    1962 LEROY "NICKY" BARNES walks out of Green Haven State Prison. There are an estimated 153,000 heroin abusers in the United States.1977 Two million junkies score $100 million worth of Barnes's smack a year. Sporting flashy suits, riding in a Citroën with a Maserati engine and satisfying a wife while pleasuring a harem of mistresses, Barnes presides over a staggering multinational dealership that pushes dope and launders money with the efficiency of a Fortune 500 company. Despite President Nixon's creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration and New York State's adoption of the no tolerance Rockefeller drug laws, Barnes's operation seems impregnable.How does a small-time hustler and heroin addict end up on the cover of the New York Times Magazine as MR. UNTOUCHABLE, the one gangster the Feds can't touch? And how is the future Mayor of New York City Rudolf Giuliani involved? With Machiavellian pragmatism matched with biblical fury, Barnes lays bare his life's remarkable trajectory--a rise, fall and resurrection defined by brutality, brotherhood and betrayal.

    The details of her cruelty were so sickening they shocked the country. Alloma Gilbert was one of Spry's young victims, left at her mercy for 11 brutal years. This is her story.