Currently Reading: Ugly, By Constance Briscoe…
Friday, May 11, 2007Posted in: Constance Briscoe, Ugly
Sorry for the lack of posts, I’ve been travelling all over this bloody overcrowded country. Anyway, here’s the blurb for Ugly
I handed my school photograph to my mother. She stared from the photograph to me. ‘Lord, sweet Lord how come she so ugly. Ugly. Ugly.’
Constance’s mother systematically abused her daughter, both physically and emotionally, throughout her childhood. Regularly beaten and starved, the girl was so desperate she took herself off to Social Services and tried to get taken into care. When that failed, she swallowed bleach ‘because it kills all known germs and my mother always told me I was a germ’.
When Constance was thirteen, her mother simply moved out, leaving her daughter to fend for herself: there was no gas, no electricity and no food. But somehow Constance found the courage to survive her terrible start in life. This is her heartrending – and ultimately triumphant – story.
I’m loving Ugly, but it’s not the easiest book to read.
I do like books that take me out of my comfort zone though, they usually make me think. That’s not a bad thing methinks.
Dawn
May 11
9:43 am
I haven’t read the book, but I recall months back, the mother giving her side of the story in the paper.
Anonymous
May 11
2:39 pm
It does sound like a painful read, specially if you think it’s a true story.
Why people are so judgmental on things you have no control over,like the way you look. It’s beyond me to get how can a person get contest prizes for something you have no control over.
Rocio
Anonymous
May 11
4:24 pm
Ok, Yank that I am, when I first read this post, I thought for a moment it was the US author Connie Briscoe whose novels I’ve enjoyed. Then I realized this was a UK author, read up on her, and larned she’s also a judge. The controversy is interesting, and seems she’s pitted against her family, although I don’t know how much I can believe the Wikipedia entry on her.
Shiloh Walker
May 11
9:14 pm
I can’t read stories like this. I got out of nursing in part because I saw things like this, day in and day out, and it just got too hard.
The things people who do to their kids, or make thier kids think, it’s enough to break your heart.
Lori
May 12
1:41 am
This synopsis reminds me of A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer. Another book so hard to read, but well worth the effort. And it makes you so horrified that there are people out there like that.
Sarah McCarty
May 12
10:26 am
I read the whole Pelzer series. It was very hard to read but also extremely interesting. Especially his struggles as an adult to cope with his reality as a child.
I know I’ll read this, too. Though only when I’m in research mode. Can’t read stories like this when I’m in an empathizing mood. They really get to me then.
janet
October 22
5:47 pm
i am a young girl i do not no what is draging me to this book i am so into it i do not now why but i am i love the book so much even it a sad story and everthing
read it
it good
shauna
March 26
4:56 pm
hi, i have just finished reading your book. you done so well for yourself!! i work in a bank in clapham so mabe i might bump into you, i am interested to know what happened to your sisters and your mum after you left uni? did you ever meet them again?/
xx
Marguerite Dyer-Hunt
May 8
3:11 pm
I read “Ugly” a few years ago and enjoyed this book very much. I am convinced that the mother had a mental health problem and was totally evil. I worked in the UK for 15 years as a Residential Social Worker.I have worked with numerous Children and Young people who were Abused by their parents in horrific ways. This case was one of the worst but this child was of high Intellect and overcame all the evil that was given to her by her mother. This book was so inspiring and shows how we can Overcome and make something of ourselves regardless of the wrongs in our past . I am still looking for UGLY part 2. Well done Constance.