Social Services place her with specialist foster carer Angela Hart. Angela does her best to provide a secure environment for Jasmine in the hope that she can begin to move on, but it proves challenging as Jasmine often breaks out in bursts of anger and sometimes physical violence. Can Angela show Jasmine what safety looks like? And can she help Jasmine's beloved grandparents – who have been campaigning to become her full-time guardians – persuade social services that they are best placed to look after this troubled little girl?The Girl with the Saddest Secret is the eighth book from well-loved foster carer and Sunday Times bestselling author Angela Hart. A true story that shares the tale of one of the many children she has fostered over the years. Angela's stories show the difference that quiet care, a watchful eye and sympathetic ear can make to those children whose upbringing has been less fortunate than others.

    Denise endured emotional and physical cruelty and molestation at the hands of her mother and her drunken boyfriends. In an environment full of toxic emotions and violence, her survival depended on navigating daily, a safe passage through the basest of human behaviours. An absent, paedophilic father could not be trusted, and her older brother fled, as soon as he was able. Alone, in this domestic battlefield, she faced an unpredictable psychotic mother, regular beatings and torture, all against a backdrop of fear that she would be killed. But throughout Denise kept alive dreams of escaping. This book covers the early years of her life and is an affecting and inspirational book of the horrors of child abuse and the steadfast determination of one child to survive.

    Evie much later on also became a survivor of Domestic Violence, as a young wife and mother. ​ Melvin, a family friend, and sexual predator carved a path for himself using Evie’s young innocence, by showing her kindness in a place of loneliness. Evie had no one to turn to, her mother an alcoholic, and her step-father a cruel, and vicious man. Evie through the years was placed in several different foster homes; Evie ran away from them all, even living on the cold streets of London at eleven years old. A homeless traveller took Evie under their wing, kept her safe, and eventually helped to guide her home.  All she had to cling to in the end was her biological father, also an alcoholic, her Nan, and her great love of horses. ​ Evie would later marry Andrew, yet another man in her life who deceived her in every heartbreaking way imaginable. Andrew viciously beat Evie many times over during a six-year period, and he had numerous affairs with prostitutes, as well as affairs with other women whom she knew. Evie had nowhere to run to, that Andrew would not find her, and bring her back. She felt broken in mind, body, and spirit, with no one to protect her. Evie sometimes felt like giving up her very existence, though it was her deep bond, and love for her children that she found the strength to keep on going. ​ Evie’s great fondness for books eventually led her to find spirituality, which gave her calm and peaceful moments, and through spirituality she met two amazing women, and with their help she found the strength to take back her life, and then she met Steve. Steve gave Evie a love story, which she would never, ever forget. ​ Evie wanted to keep her readers in mind, and so her re- account of her childhood memories of being sexually abused is written in such a way, as to not to be too upsetting, and so she decided to write about it very softly, and only touching on this subject very briefly. Her story may appear very harrowing, though it has it does have it’s up’s and down’s, as well it's funny and sad moments. Evie does however eventually experience a beautiful love, and she does have her happy ever after, by walking a broken road…home.

    A moving collection of 6 short stories – Helpless, A Small Boy’s Cry, Two More Sleeps, Unexpected, Just a Boy and At Risk – previously available as individual e-shorts.A collection of inspiring and emotive real-life short stories from foster carers Casey Watson and Rosie Lewis.Sarah, a baby born to a crack-addicted mother on a freezing cold night in December.Charlie, who fell from the second-floor window of his tower block home while his mother is busy shooting up in their dirty council flat.Angell, left barely clothed beneath a park bench on a freezing cold day in winter.Hope, abandoned as a new-born by a young woman traumatised by a dark secret.Cameron, a sweet boy with a great sense of humour, who disappears after a disastrous and embarrassing family trip.Adam, a fragile and anxious child, whose relationship with his mother starts to unravel.

    For Lisa Nugent and her twin sister Shell, however, madness was impossible to avoid—it was home.Growing up in Essex in the seventies and eighties, Lisa learned quickly that her family wasn’t like her classmates’ families—their mothers were friendly, fierce, or demure women. They had their quirks, but they didn’t assault their husbands, and their frenzied screams didn’t chase their children out of the house in the middle of the night. Not like her mother. Now, for the first time, Lisa relives those troubled years, recounting her development from a nervous, shy, and friendless child through to the woman she is today. Madness and Me isn’t just a memoir about surviving an abusive, paranoid parent—it’s about the importance of family, the pain of loss, and learning to love even when it’s the hardest thing in the world to do.A work of tenderness, dignity, and humour, Madness and Me is sure to appeal to lovers of memoir and drama alike.

    A four-day-old baby boy called Tommy – born in prison – plus his four-year-old half-brother, the lively Seth. A month later, the very moment she gets out of prison, the boys’ mother – a 19-year-old called Jenna – also follows.For Casey, it would it be a difficult scenario on several levels. Caring for a new born in her fifties with a pre-schooler who has spent most of his young life without boundaries tearing around her ankles, while also looking out for his drug-addicted mum who is ill-equipped to parent.It’s an unusual situation but one that has arisen in a bid to keep the family together. Can Casey find the energy and strength needed to rise to the challenge? Casey believes she can but when baby Tommy and Seth arrive, she falters. Seth is not so much a pocket rocket as a seek and destroy missile with a whole other agenda…

    But when she was just 11 years old, her older brother began to sexually abuse her. After four years, Carol managed to escape – and ran away from home.Picked up by social services they place her at Aston Hall in Derby; a psychiatric hospital now infamous for the ghoulish ‘truth serum’ experiments it carried out on children. Over three years, Carol was stripped, sedated, assaulted and raped by Kenneth Milner, the doctor in charge.Eventually she is released back into the community, aged 18, and has a daughter. But the baby is taken away for adoption and Carol’s trauma intensifies.In 2010 Carol finally plucked up the courage to speak out about the abuse she suffered – and received justice, at last.In The Asylum Carol tells the full story of how she overcame unimaginable suffering, to find the happiness and solace she has today as a mother and grandmother.

    She was wrong … this is her staggering true story.‘This must be what prison is like,’ I thought as another hour crawled by. In fact, prison would be better … at least you knew your sentence. You could tick off the days until you got out. In the Bad Room we had no idea how long we’d serve.After years of constant abuse, Jade thought her foster mother Carol Docherty would be the answer to her prayers. Loving and nurturing, she offered ten-year-old Jade a life free of fear.But once the regular social-worker checks stopped, Carol turned and over the next six years Jade and three other girls were kept prisoner in a bedroom they called the ‘bad room’.Shut away for 16 hours at a time, they were starved, violently beaten, forbidden from speaking or using the toilet and routinely humiliated. Jade was left feeling broken and suicidal.This is the powerful true story of how one woman banished the ghosts of her past by taking dramatic action to protect the life of every vulnerable child in care.

    The police remove Jamey from home and take him to foster carer, Cathy. But as Jamey settles into Cathy’s home a new threat emerges and coronavirus changes everything.Jamey arrives at Cathy’s as an emergency two days before Christmas, having been left alone all night while his drug and alcohol dependent mother went out partying. Jamey is scared, small for his age, and unsteady on his feet, more like a baby, a result of being left for long periods in his cot which his mother used as a cage. When Cathy changes Jamey’s nappy she finds his bottom is red raw from being left in soiled nappies.Slowly, with patience, love, care and understanding Jamey learns to trust Cathy and her adult daughter, Paula, the only one of Cathy’s children still living at home. Cathy also looks after her granddaughter, Emma, one day a week and although she is a year younger than Jamey she is more advanced, highlighting the damage neglect has done to Jamey in his early years.When the country goes into lockdown many fostering practices change; meetings, visits and contact take place online which brings more problems. Referrals to the social services soar and Cathy accepts two more children short term. It isn’t until restrictions are lifted the judge can make decisions on poor Jamey’s fate…

    From a child to the National President of one the most notorious Motorcycle clubs in history. The best book of its genre.Once you start it you won't be able to put it down.

     Sophie Jenkins is living a happy life in the idyllic Dorset countryside when she meets Martin Brett, the man who will go on to abuse her and haunt her dreams for years to come. A momentary act of neglect leads to a horrible series of events that leaves her changed forever. Badly let down by the adults entrusted to care for her, Sophie’s life begins to spiral downwards. However, Sophie’s message is ultimately one of hope and empowerment. She is in the process of rebuilding her life when fate leads her to encounter her childhood attacker once again. The story ends with a truly shocking climax. WARNING: This book is based upon a true story of child abuse and contains passages that some readers may find disturbing. All names and places have been changed to protect the identities of the innocent. For every book sold or borrowed, a donation will be made to the NSPCC (Cover photograph is posed by a model and is used for illustrative purposes only.)

    She slipped through the net and only just survived. Her childhood was a place of filth and terror. Her prostitute mother abused and neglected Collette; leaving her with clients, starving her and beating her to a pulp.But the worst thing was that the people who were supposed to protect Collette turned a blind eye. This is the story of a little girl who waited years for justice. It's the story of a woman determined to protect other children from suffering her fate.Collette Elliott is a 35-year-old mother of four. She was born in Birmingham to Maureen Batchelor, a prostitute, and suffered years of physical and mental abuse. In April 2013, Birmingham City Council awarded her £20,000 in damages for the anguish she suffered and their failure to protect her. Collette is now happily married, a devoted mother to her girls, and is campaigning on behalf of other child abuse victims.

    

    It would emerge that, like Vicky, 220 other women who were diagnosed with cervical cancer were not informed that a clinical audit -carried out by the national screen programme CervicalCheck - had revised their earlier, negative smear tests. Their cancers could possibly have been preventable.Since then, Vicky has become women's voice for justice on the issue, and her system-changing activism has made her a household name.In her memoir Overcoming, Vicky shares her remarkable personal story, from a life-threatening accident in early adulthood through to motherhood, a battle with depression, her devastating later discovery that her cancer had returned in shocking circumstances - and the ensuing detective-like scrutiny of events that led the charge for her history-making legal action.An inspiring story of rare resilience and power, Overcoming is an account of how one woman can move mountains - even when she is fighting for her own life - and of finding happiness and strength in the toughest of times.'Calls to mind the work of Emilie Pine, or the memoir by Maggie O'Farrell, I Am, I Am, I Am ... Overcoming is more than the retelling of an extraordinary life. Its pacing and gentleness leaves plenty of room for tears and for reflection' Irish Independent

    When I finally entered the real world, evil was waiting.’ A shocking true account of one girl’s harrowing journey to survival.Sophie Crockett spent most of her childhood suffering from crippling anxiety. Diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, she became a virtual prisoner in her own home, afraid to venture outside. After battling with depression, eating disorders and self-harm, Sophie had the courage to re-enter society in her late teens.She was just 17 when she fell prey to ST, a violent bully who exploited her vulnerability and cruelly assumed complete coercive control over her life. He kept Sophie captive and refused to leave her alone; fed her, bathed her, even escorted her to the toilet. Sophie endured countless tirades of mental and physical abuse, kept as his sex slave while he repeatedly threatened to kill her.She was convinced it was the end. But through her bravery, and with little help from the authorities, Sophie was able to escape.This is her story.