Product Description

'This morning I found this bag. I had been looking for sweets. I put my hand in the bag and felt a sticky liquid on my fingers, then I looked at it. It was a red smear. Then I looked in the bag: bloody knives and clothes. It didn't feel good. What did it mean? I don't know. There are no answers; I daren't ask the questions' Growing up in poverty in London's East End, Kathy was eight years old when her father forced her mother into prostitution. When their mother fled, leaving Kathy and her sisters behind, the girls stuck fiercely together while being passed from children's homes to boarding schools. Then, on a rare trip home, Kathy looked out the window to see a man firing four shots into a Rolls-Royce. It took several seconds for her to realise the victim was her mother's lover, and the gunman was her father. Kathy began her haunting memoir when, as an adult, she travelled back to London, to find out who her gangster father really was. A compelling memoir of an extraordinary childhood, "Dance for your Daddy" is a true story of the effects on one family of poverty, affluence, violence and love.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66178 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From the Publisher
A heartbreaking true story of four sisters who witnessed their mother enter prostitution and their father commit murder

About the Author
Katherine Shellduck was born in London in 1961. Subsequent to the period of this book, in her late teens, Shellduck travelled to Australia where eventually she put herself through university and became a successful journalist. Currently a teacher and writer, she lives in Australia with her two children.

Customer Reviews

compelling read
I started to read this book and had finished it in a day. Once I'd started the book, I could not put it down.

Its a hauntingly, poignant, true story of four sisters being brought up in the East end of London in poverty and violence.

I dont want to give too much of the story away, but I found it heartbreaking at times, though the author managed to interpose some humour into the tale.

There is nothing more cruel or damaging to a child than being rejected by a parent, yet these poor girls suffered rejection from both parents.
It was not untill later in the authors life, when she travelled back to London, to try and make sense of things - concerning her father and the murder he'd committed, that she seemed to get her life into perspective.

Katherine writes beautifully, she told the story through the eyes of the child that she was then. She's later gone on to be a successful jounalist and is now a mother herself.
She has overcome her heartbreak of her childhood and has broken the cycle.
I would bet my bottom dollar that she's a wonderful mum!

Well done to you Katherine for a wonderful story, beautifully written, I hope you have finally found peace of mind, you deserve happiness and I wish you well.

I definately recommend this book to all readers - buy it and judge for youselves, you wont be dissapointed.

I wish you a happy life Katherine, your sisters must be so proud of you.

Marilyn Hardy (author of Worthless) UK.

Another point of view
I read this book purely because the author is my sister.

A sad, moving, inspiring and often mischievous tale of wonder and woe.

On the upside - we are all, my lovely mother and cherished sisters - still standing.

Well done Kaf! Well done us!

Dance For Your Daddy
This book started of slow and i didnt think I would get into it but was worth persevering with.