Serpent Child

by Pat Riley

Serpent Child is the autobiography of Patricia Riley. It describes the life of a child of seperated parents in post war Britain at a time when children were still ‘seen but not heard’ and when even for married parents children were preferably seen somewhere else.
Many children were hurried off to boarding schools, even at a very tender age; and, if they were noticed at all, children could become pawns in harmful, even dangerous parental war games. In an enlightening, at times humorous, and important book, Pat describes a past that is not always past.
‘Children were once viewed as property for the most powerful parent usually the father. Much of the history of family law is the history of the emancipation of children.
‘High Court judge Mrs Justice Parker once remarked how children were too frequently weaponised by their parents, and were ‘child soldiers in the separation war’. It has taken family courts and family justice professionals decades to deal with this chronic weaponising and to help children move into a demilitarised zone within or outside of their family.
‘This is an important book about an issue that is rarely covered in such depth, and I wish it every success.’ Anthony Douglas CBE, Chief Executive of Cafcass, January 2019. Patricia Riley is the author of Looking for Githa, the biography of the ground-breaking playwright Githa Sowerby

224 pages, Paperback

Published November 14, 2019

About the author

Patrick James "Pat" Riley (born March 20, 1945) is an American professional basketball executive, and a former coach and player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been the team president of the Miami Heat since 1995, a position that enabled him to serve as their de facto general manager and as their head coach in two separate tenures (1995 through 2003, and 2005 through 2008).

Widely regarded as one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time, Riley has served as the head coach of five championship teams and an assistant coach to another. He was named NBA Coach of the Year three times (1989–90, 1992–93 and 1996–97, as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks and Miami Heat, respectively). He was head coach of an NBA All-Star Game team nine times: eight times with the Western Conference team (1982, 1983, 1985–1990, all as head coach of the Lakers) and once with the Eastern team (1993, as head coach of the Knicks). In 1996 he was named one of the 10 Greatest Coaches in the NBA history. As a player, he played for the Los Angeles Lakers' championship team in 1972. Riley most recently won the 2012 and 2013 NBA championships with the Miami Heat as their team president. He is the first North American sports figure to win a championship as a player, coach (both assistant and head), and executive. He received the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award from the NBA Coaches Association on June 20, 2012.