Ethel Mae's mum emigrated from Jamaica to London and had only been there a few years when she was raped by a family member's boyfriend. Instead of getting sympathy, she was cast away from her family and out of church for being pregnant and unmarried.

When Ethel Mae was born, she was cursed. Everyone wanted her to be born deformed or better still for them, dead. As a young girl, she faced constant physical, emotional, verbal and sexual abuse.

When she wasn't being beaten senseless, she was being berated and vilified. She would be told things like, "Why can't they come and take you away and kill you like they do to other people's children?" or "I should have gone through with the abortion when Auntie Mildred was offering to pay for it." Those cutting words reinforced and confirmed that she was unwanted and unloved.

Get a painful glimpse at how abuse can devastate someone's life and how hard it is to break the cycle as the author shares a courageous story of survival.