Product Description

When Eileen Munro's mother became pregnant at 16, she was told to give her baby away to a 'good family', but the couple who paid the fee at the Salvation Army mother-and-baby home in Glasgow in 1963 turned out to be alcoholics who neglected and physically abused Eileen. Then, when their marriage broke down, they failed to protect her from sexual abuse at the hands of a family friend. After watching her adoptive mother drown on inhaled vomit, Eileen and her younger sister were taken into care, but her nightmare was to continue as she was subjected to further physical, sexual and emotional abuse. At the age of only seventeen, seven months into a secret pregnancy, she decided that the only way out was through a bottle of painkillers; when she survived and gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, he became her lifeline.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21843 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

About the Author
Eileen Munro is a trained photographer and a committed campaigner, publicist and feature writer for the UK brain injury charity Headway. She has addressed a cross-party committee of the Scottish Parliament investigating the extent of child sexual abuse in Scotland. She lives in South Lanarkshire and is currently studying creative writing through Open University. Carol McKay teaches creative writing with the Open University and her fiction has appeared in literary magazines, including Chapman and Mslexia. In 2002, she was a finalist in the prestigious Macallan/Scotland on Sunday Short Story Competition and in 2007 an extract from her work-in-progress novel was shortlisted in the Daily Telegraph Novel in a Year competition.

Customer Reviews

A movie adaptation must follow
Forget the raft of misery lit clogging up the bookshops. Yes, this is the story of a young girl from birth to sixteen. She was adopted,abused, neglected by individuals and institutions. But this book for all the familiar subject matter is written in such an honest, straight-forward, unembellished way as to set it apart from the rest.

It is a rollercoaster ride of a read, in which a girl, adrift in a society which constantly overlooks her needs and potential, tries to cope.She copes, mainly using her mantra of "Nothing in, nothing out."

So powerful was this book that I read it in one sitting and I would highly recommend it. It's not misery lit but it is a powerfully moving read.

Difficult subjects, easy to read.
The story of Eileen's life to the age of 16 covers many issues that are very unsettling to think about, but Eileen's writing style is effortlessly frank and very easy to read. I read it in a couple of days - I haven't read a book that quick in years!

I would thoroughly recommend this to anyone who is interested in all forms of life experience - fear, humour, grief and strength of character.

book
bought this but wish I hadn't found the content quite disturbing couldn't finish it. it's a very powerful book on a very touchy subject maybe others would like it though but it wasn't for me