Abandoned Child

by Toni Maguire

From the million-copy bestselling author Toni Maguire comes a new true story of neglect, abuse and survival.

Amy had a happy childhood until the sudden death of her mother when she was ten years old. Eventually abandoned by her father, she found herself falling prey to the evil that lurked in her school and on the streets.

Addicted to heroin by the age of twelve, Amy attempted to get clean in the hopes of reconciling with her father and his new wife. But unable to rid herself of her addiction, she fell into a world of hard drug use, homelessness, imprisonment and abusive relationships.

At Amy's lowest ebb, she found the strength to turn her life around. Abandoned Child is her incredible story of survival, and how finding self-worth and love from the right person changed her future.



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Genres: Audiobook

308 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 17, 2023

About the author

“Don’t tell Mummy”, my memoir of my own childhood abuse, became a UK best seller in 2007. Writing about my experiences was hard emotionally, but in retrospect it has helped me deal with my past and realize that there is no shame in being the victim. It is never the child’s fault, whatever the abuser makes them believe at the time. How can it be? I then wrote a sequel, “When Daddy Comes Home”, which deals with the mental trauma of having a father jailed for incest, return to a home where my mother welcomed him back as if nothing had happened and turned her back on me.

My success with my two autobiographies encouraged others who had kept their childhood secrets hidden to approach me and five books depicting their stories followed: Helpless, Nobody Came, Don’t You Love Your Daddy? Can’t Anyone Help Me? All very different, but with one thing in common; the victims all thought they were somehow to blame.

I hope that my books have helped expose and lift the social taboos of acknowledging physical and emotional abuse together mental illness. Whereas children are victims, adults need to be survivors. I not only used my own name in my books, but placed my photograph there as well, making my point that no shame should be attached to having been a victim.

To date I have published over 1.5 million books worldwide. In October last year France published Madeline’s story, “They Stole my Innocence,” which will be available in the UK in August. Before I wrote it, I had started writing my first novel; a mixture of fact and fiction which happily I have now finished, titled “Pretty Maids all in a Row” Set against the capricious, unequal and often cruel landscape of London’s Victorian era, it is the story of Agnes a fisherman’s daughter and Emily a heiress. One travels to London in search for her sister, the other is kidnapped, simply because she is was so beautiful. Both girls are taken to Mary Jefferies, the notorious brothel keeper whose clients were some of the most powerful men in England. Her sponsor was King Leopold, the cousin of Queen Victoria. Against this background the passionate men and women known as the Reformers were striving to get the age of consent. This is a major departure in the style of my writing and I think my previous fan-base and totally new readers of my work will find it enthralling.

Reviews

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

With every page turn hooked, gripped and intriguing as usual from Toni. I was compelled to keep reading an extra page or chapter.

[Rebecca Fowkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic book from Toni Maguire. It was awful what Amy went through after her Mum died, thank you Toni for telling us Amy's story.