Inspirational Real Lives

27-year-old Surjit Athwal was lured by her husband to a wedding in India, where she was murdered and her body thrown into a river. Surjit’s sister-in-law, Sarbjit Athwal, had been present at the family meeting in London, at which her mother-in-law pronounced a death sentence on the absent Surjit, for bringing dishonour to them. Risking the same fate, Sarbjit covertly sought justice for nine years, finally securing long custodial sentences for Surjit’s mother-in-law and her husband. Speaking publicly for the first time, this brave woman exposes the full extent and extreme injustices of forced marriages and honour killings in Britain today.

Assaults. Riots. Cell fires. Medical emergencies. Understaffed wings. Suicides. Hooch. Weapons. It’s all in a week’s work at HMP Parkhurst.

After 28 years working as a prison officer, with 22 years at HMP Parkhurst, once one of Britain’s most high security prisons, David Berridge has had to deal with it all: serial killers and gangsters, terrorists and sex offenders, psychopaths and addicts. Inside Parkhurst is his raw, uncompromising look at what really goes on behind the massive walls and menacing gates.

Thrown in at the deep end, David quickly had to work out how to deal with the most cunning and volatile of prisoners, and learn how to avoid their many scams. He has been assaulted and abused; he has tackled cell fires and attempted suicides, riots and dirty protests; he has helped to foil escaped plans, talked inmates down from rooftop protests, witnessed prisoners setting fire to themselves, and prevented prisoners from attempting to murder other prisoners. And now he takes us inside this secret world for the first time.

With this searingly honest account he guides us around the wings, the segregation unit, the hospital and the exercise yard, and gives vivid portraits of the drug taking, the hooch making, the constant and irrepressible violence, and the extraordinary lengths our prison officers go to everyday. Divided into three parts – the first from David’s early years on the wings, the second the middle of his career, and the third his disillusioned later years – David will take readers into the heart of life inside and shine a light on the escalating violence and the impact the government cuts are having on the wings.

Both horrifying and hilarious, David’s diaries are guaranteed to shock and entertain in equal measure.

It is a crime, no less disturbing today than it was in 1993, when Ralph Bulger’s two- year-old son, James, was abducted and brutally murdered by two ten-year-old boys, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. Ralph talks with searing honesty about the murder, the nightmares that haunted him and the grief that ripped his marriage apart. He describes his outrage at his son’s killers being sentenced to only eight years’ detention in a secure unit and how he has found the strength to sustain a twenty-year battle to achieve justice for his son. My James is a father’s loving tribute to his adorable young boy, whose bright smile brought joy to all who knew him. Deservedly No. 1 in the Sunday Times bestseller chart.

Les Cummings spent many years of his childhood in a local authority children’s home.  Conditions were harsh, with terrifying violence meted out by some of the staff.  Sent to live with foster parents for nearly three horrendous years, he was beaten, starved and sexually abused.  He spent many days at a time locked in a cupboard under the stairs.  His life was slipping out of control, until one day he found the strength to break free of his abusive past.

Gripping, inspiring and at times shocking, In Pursuit of the Truth is a warts-and-all account of modern day policing – seen through the eyes of a man who has dedicated his life to making a difference.

Former Detective Chief Inspector Clive Driscoll made his reputation solving the unsolvable. Most famous for finally securing the convictions for the murderers of Stephen Lawrence in 2012, Clive’s prodigious rise through the ranks of the world’s most famous police force, the Met, saw him head up some of the most high-profile units at Scotland Yard.

Clive has dedicated his 35-year career to unearthing the truth. This is his brutally honest story.

Working during the late 1940s and 1950s, Staff Nurse Georgie Edwards realised that, if she was to restore the health of her patients more effectively, she needed to diagnose and treat as well as to nurse them. She was offered a place to study medicine at the prestigious Barts Hospital in London, and in her own distinctive manner, set about becoming a doctor, who listened and cared, a far cry from the consultants ‘who sweep by’. But Georgie also fell in love and wanted a family as well as a career. Warmly evoking both the joys and the sadnesses of her work, The Best Medicine is Georgie’s engaging and often humorous memoir of her early years in the Health Service, first as a nurse, then as a doctor.

A mother’s story behind one of the most dramatic true crime cases in recent history.

“I have lived every parent’s worst nightmare. On what would have been my daughter’s 29th birthday, Detective Superintendent Stephen Fulcher knocked on the door and told me my beautiful Becky was dead. She had been found buried in a shallow grave in a remote field in the Gloucestershire countryside. Becky had been brutally murdered.”

This is Karen’s story of an unbreakable love for her daughter despite unimaginable tragedy: from her despair through Becky’s troubled teenage years, to the agonising eight years when Becky was missing, and then the dramatic story of how a killer’s confession led to a terrible discovery.

Karen was thrown into a world where the truth was never guaranteed; where taxi driver Christopher Halliwell nearly got away with murder; where the police officer who found her daughter was punished instead. The one constant has been Karen’s determination to fight for Becky, tirelessly campaigning for the truth about what happened and Halliwell to face the consequences of his evil actions.

*The murders of Becky Godden-Edwards and Sian O’Callaghan will soon be the focus of major new ITV series A Confession starring Martin Freeman as Stephen Fulcher and Imelda Staunton as Karen Edwards.

Kate’s ordeal began when she was living in sheltered accommodation, and she was violently introduced to an Asian sex ring. Traumatised and alone, she was too weak to try to escape or even tell anyone. Four years later, she had been passed between over 70 men in the West Midlands, was on drugs, and suffered with PTSD so severe she was on the edge of suicide. So when Operation Chalice came to recruit her, would she be strong enough to turn the tables and bring her abusers down?

It was the biggest haul of cocaine ever discovered in the UK – £53m worth stashed inside eleven rucksacks that had snarled underneath fishing nets on the Isle of Wight. Within three hours, the police pounced, and in June 2011 five fishermen were found guilty of conspiracy to import Class A drugs. A jury believed they’d taken their boat into the Channel, then waited for someone to throw the bags into the ocean from a passing cargo ship. The men were handed prison sentences that totalled 104 years. However, when reexamined, the evidence (some of it new) proves they didn’t do it. Their boat was struggling to survive a Force Eight storm; crucial facts known only to the police were withheld; surveillance reports mysteriously disappeared; key intelligence was inexplicably spoilt; radio communications conveniently broke down; and expert radar analysis, which effectively sealed the men’s fate, was incorrect. Still imprisoned, the five men and their families continue to battle for their release. 104 Years is their story as told by the skipper of the crew on the night they found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Working as a firefighter in London’s East End during the early 1970s was a tough but rewarding job for Allan Grice.  Back then, before the days of health and safety, he would crawl fearlessly below the level of the most intense heat and ‘eat smoke’, if there was a chance of rescuing a stranded child or impeding a rapidly spreading inferno.  Allan’s experiences of fires in factories, warehouses, tenements and other dwellings, as well as non-fire emergencies such as the Moorgate Tube disaster of 1975, are dramatically described, and the camaraderie among the fire crews vividly depicted.

A devastating true story of love, betrayal, and deceit.

Chrissy: attractive, successful 40-year-old divorcee with three amazing children.

Alexander ‘Alex’ Marc d’Ariken de Rothschild-Hatton: international financier, wealthy, charming and smooth-talking.

It’s not long before they fall madly in love. With the promise of marriage and a new baby on the way, Chrissy knows she has been given another chance at love.

But then Alex asks for a loan to help him get over a few cash-flow problems. And, before long, £500,000 of Chrissy’s money has vanished – along with Alex.

After months of detective work, Chrissy finally tracks him down. But the reality of Alex’s true identity is far darker than she ever could have imagined …

Linda was plunged into the dark, terrifying world of 1960s institutional life at St Anne’s Convent, Orpington, a Catholic children’s home run by the infamous Sisters of Mercy and a former monk, who inflicted bizarre and barbaric practices on the children in their care.  Cry and You Cry Alone is the achingly honest story of a survivor of shocking child abuse that took place in the heart of an English suburb.

Naomi Jacobs went to sleep one night in 2008 as a 32-year-old mother, and woke up the next morning believing she was a fifteen-year-old school girl. She did not recognise the house she woke up in, though it was hers, nor her ten-year-old son, Leo. As far as she was concerned, she was in 1992 when John Major was Prime Minister, before the world had been blessed with mobile phones, DVDs or reality TV. She didn’t know it, but she had dissociative amnesia.

With the help of her personal diaries and those close to her, Naomi set about piecing together as much as she could of her missing years. What she discovered shocked her. As she dug deeper, she began to experience disturbing flashbacks of traumatic events. Would Naomi ever find her way back to the person she once was? Did she even want to?

Funny and moving, I Woke Up in the Future is ultimately an inspiring story of loss and redemption, and the power of second chances.

Scarred by her father’s violence and being bullied, sexually assaulted and raped at school, Nikola had nowhere to turn for help.  She fell in love and married Neil while still in her teens, but his abuse of her started on the first night of their honeymoon.  She was tormented, kept a prisoner, sexually abused, and subjected to horrific beatings.  When the violence escalated and he threatened to kill her, Nikola found the courage to fight back and be free of him.  Eventually, she turned her life around, and today is happily married and works as a therapist helping others.

Sarah’s parents had no idea when they sent their teenage daughter to board at a school within an evangelical church community, that they were consigning her to a cult, which would isolate her from her family, brutalise her and brainwash her into submission.  Sarah looked on in helpless distress as each of her very young children was being beaten and force-fed by the Church’s leaders.  Call Me Evil, Let Me Go is the shocking, but inspiring true story of a mother’s ultimately successful attempt to free herself and her children from the cruel grip of the Church.

There was a hidden, but terrible side to popular Radio Dublin DJ, Eamonn Cooke. His sexual abuse of Siobhan from the age of 7 and many other trusting young girls at his home and studios in Dublin was cunningly executed and vile.  She tried to bury her memories until, almost twenty years later, she saw the man, who had haunted her life, in the street holding the hands of two wide-eyed children.  Siobhan knew she had no choice, but to save them and other potential victims from Cooke’s clutches and, no matter what it took, get him sentenced to a long term of imprisonment.

As a survivor of a brutal attack by the Yorkshire Ripper, this book gives fresh insight into the consequences of being labeled a victim of this notorious serial killer.

Mo Lea was followed home and attacked by Peter Sutcliffe, who hit her over the head repeatedly with a hammer. She was stabbed with a screwdriver leaving her with life threatening injuries. The book reveals how Mo has wrestled with the past, struggling to come to terms with the well-trodden, morbid narrative. She has written a new, fresh perspective for the present day.

Her writing offers an alternative account, one which repositions her as a survivor with a success story. While sympathy has its place for the victims, this book gives insight into processes of recovery and success. Mo had no control over unwanted media interventions. Sometimes the Ripper story would appear on the morning news while she was getting ready to go to work. She learnt to contain her anxiety but she could neither predict or escape these uncomfortable moments that reminded her of her past trauma.

Mo Lea’s art practice has been an important factor in her life. She has been fortunate to use this as an outlet to explore her pain, anger, suffering and recovery.

After years of personal growth and recovery, a short film was made of Mo Lea creating a drawing from the iconic photograph of the man who had tried to take her life. She is filmed ripping up the Ripper. She is filmed tearing up the portrait that she had so carefully drawn, rendering him as disposable as a piece of litter. The film shows how Mo turned her story around, making Sutcliffe the victim and herself, the triumphant survivor.

Mo had finally found a way of stepping out of the frame. She no longer felt like running away. The illustrations contained within describe better than any words, her journey from tragic despair to calmness and acceptance. By writing this book Mo Lea has found a way to reclaim her story.

Top shot Tony Long is the most prolific police marksman Britain’s ever seen. For 25 years, he operated in the Met’s elite specialist firearms units and was at the forefront of SO19’s fight against armed crime.

Deployed on hundreds of dangerous operations, it was his duty to bring down terrorists, killers, and hostage takers, sometimes with lethal force – with only seconds to decide. Tony has been behind some of the UK’s most controversial police shootings but it was the death of suspected armed robber and drug dealer Azelle Rodney that brought his career to a devastating end. Tried for murder, Tony saw his life crumble around him…simply for doing his job.

An intense and dramatic read, Tony’s story raises serious issues about the responsibility that falls on the shoulders of those who risk their lives, and take the lives of others, in our name.

Burying a child is every parent’s nightmare. But Marie McCourt has spent 31 years yearning to do just that.

On February 9th, 1988, her 22-year-old daughter, Helen, left her office in Liverpool city centre, and began her usual commute home. But she was never seen again… Within days, local pub landlord, Ian Simms was identified as her murderer; and despite Helen’s body not being found, a mass of incontrovertible DNA and witness evidence at his trial twelve months later resulted in a life sentence.

But Simms has refused to disclose the whereabouts of Helen’s body, meaning Marie and her family have never been able to get closure. They’ve never had a grave at which they can pay their respects.

Marie has fought for the last 30 years to find her daughter’s body and to stop other families facing the same horrifying fate, recently winning the Ministry of Justice’s approval for “Helen’s Law”, characterised by the slogan: “No Body No Parole”, to be enacted.

This is the incredible story of the crushing devastation of a mother from the loss of her daughter, a callous murderer and the indomitable strength of a woman, who would not be bowed by an outdated law.

When Julie, Ann Ming’s 22-year-old daughter, went missing, she was certain she had been murdered.  Despite extensive searches of Julie’s house and the surrounding area, the police failed to find her, but three months later, Ann was horrified to discover her daughter’s body, still in the house.  A violent local man, Billy Dunlop, was tried for murder but walked free.  Knowing he could not be tried again under the law of double jeopardy, he callously bragged about his ‘perfect crime’.  But Dunlop had not reckoned on the steely determination of Ann Ming, who would make legal history by overturning the law, for which she received an MBE.

Kim Noble is an accomplished artist and the mother of 14-year-old Aimee.  There’s just one problem.  To all extents and purposes, Kim Noble does not exist.  Kim’s mind had fragmented as a result of repeated and horrific abuse before her third birthday.  Diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), her body plays host to 20 or more different personalities, each of whom paints in a completely different style.  Kim’s memoir takes us into her world of multiple realities, which is by turns shocking, funny and inspiring.  A top 10 bestseller.

Victim. Prostitute. Gangster’s Wife. Survivor.

Tara grew up in squalor on the island of Alderney. When she was only four, she was sexually abused by one of her mother’s many lovers, a horror that continued for five long years. As a teenager, desperate to escape the toxic environment at home, she fled to London – but was swiftly drawn into working as a prostitute. She became involved with some of London’s most notorious gangsters – even marrying one – but when she realised the danger she was inflicting on her children, she knew she had to find a way to get out.

This is the inspiring story of one woman’s will to survive, and to fight for a better life.

Abandoned at the age of 3 by her mother outside the gates of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth Convent in Belfast, Frances and her two sisters were left to the tender mercies of the nuns.  Brutally beaten, worked like a slave, abused and molested, the convent regime stripped her of everything – her innocence, education and any self-esteem.  But the hope of rescue or escape continued to burn inside her.  Suffer the Little Children is a gripping and moving story of Frances’s determined and successful struggle in later life, to force an admission of guilt and an apology from the nuns who had tormented her.

Alexander Sinclair was the target of his Greek mother’s irrational hatred.  She was determined to destroy his mind, even his life.  As a young boy in Wales, Alex received severe beatings from his mother, who force-fed him amphetamines and Valium ‘to keep him in line’.  Enraged, she spirited him to Greece and committed Alex permanently to one of the worst mental institutions in Europe.  Here, he experienced unspeakable horrors until, at last, his British father found him and was able to arrange a daring escape from his incarceration.  A top 10 bestseller.

Repeatedly raped, beaten, abused and battered from the age of 8 by a male relative, Jayne’s childhood was a living hell.  One thing had kept her sane: the love and care she received from her older brother, Stuart.  But he had demons of his own, and Jayne watched in despair, as he became increasingly consumed by rage with his wife, until, at a fateful Sunday afternoon barbecue, Stuart went berserk, shooting both her and her sister dead.  Destroyed is a heart-stopping true story told by a woman, who finally managed to overcome her harrowing past, and establish a normal and happy family life for herself.  A top 10 bestseller.

In a moment of madness, Natalie agreed to be a ‘mule’.  Arrested by the Venezuelan airport authorities for the possession of drugs, she was given a prison sentence of ten years, and entered a nightmare world, where rapes, gang warfare and executions routinely occurred in the prison at the hands of its armed inmates.  Against impossible odds, Natalie escaped in a death-defying flight through Colombia and eventually back to Britain.  Sentenced to Hell is the compelling story of how one bad decision came very close to destroying Natalie’s life.

Karl Williams was on holiday in Dubai, living it large with two English friends, when they were accused of drug dealing, arrested, and tortured by police. They were innocent, but the authorities didn’t care. And so began their year-long nightmare as they were locked up in Port Rashid where prisoners of all nationalities were crammed into stinking cells, violence could erupt in seconds, and control of the jail was in the hands of a few powerful inmates. Unless you knew the right people and could work the system, you were screwed.

Karl was a survivor and managed to rise up the prison pecking order, making friends with local gangsters, Russian mafia and other assorted murderers, drug dealers, fraudsters and hapless innocents he encountered behind bars. But it was hard to stay positive when facing life or the death penalty… And then he was moved to the notorious Central prison, a terrifying place where HIV positive prisoners were used by gangsters to infect their enemies; and murders and rape were common. When Karl had lost all hope of finding justice, Reprieve, an organization of committed human rights defenders, took up his case . . .

Raw, totally gripping, and at times brutally funny, Killing Time takes you behind the shiny desert paradise to the heart of the real Dubai.