I walked past a whole shelf – no, make it six shelves – of books in the Tragic Life Stories section in WH Smith. They all have similar covers and titles such as Please Mummy, No and Our Secret... and so on. They sell millions.
I bought Ugly last year (it's about Constance Briscoe, who tells how her mother treated her appallingly badly – she went on to become Britain's first black female judge despite the hardships; some of her family are now suing her for libel). I could only get through one-third of it. It was so sad and depressing; I flicked to the end, where Constance was triumphant. Her story is undoubtedly inspiring. I know such abuses go on from watching and reading news accounts of court cases where parents or step-parents are jailed for hideous crimes; I found reading it in my leisure time slightly uncomfortable.
I can see that these books may give fellow sufferers a boost, a window of hope, to show that they, too, can overcome unbelievably awful early starts. But I can't help wondering at those who read the books slightly voyeuristically, or who think reading about someone being systematically abused is on a par with reading Bridget Jones or Jackie Collins. Hmm, shall I buy the bonkbuster or the battered child? Does it cheapen the abuse suffered to have these books on sale next to the vegetables in Tesco? I wonder.
Strangely enough there was an article in the Metro this morning about a young man who was abused by his foster mother. The woman was jailed last year for it but it had been going on for years. He is now 19 and has permanent physical damage (not to mention the psychological stuff). At the end of the article was a blurb about a book about his ordeal and I just thought why on earth would I want to read that? I don't like to think I'm shying away from the reality of what goes on in the world but reading the feature was enough. But some people do obviously lap this up and probably relax on a beach with these books.
ReplyDeleteI felt very sorry for him but I would rather donate money to a charity that can help him than buy the book, which I feel is exploiting him further.