Abandoned (23 page)

Authors: Anya Peters

Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Personal Memoirs, #Family & Relationships, #Abuse, #Child Abuse, #Dysfunctional Families, #Self-Help, #Social Science, #Sexual Abuse & Harassment, #General

BOOK: Abandoned

2.44Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

Read Book Download Book

Acknowledgements

T
hank you to everyone who made this book possible. To my agent, Camilla Hornby, for having the vision to see this as a book at a time when I was only brave enough to write it as scattered suggestions throughout a blog. To my patient and enthusiastic editors, Sally Potter and Susanna Abbott, and the dedicated team at HarperElement for taking a chance on me and for making this happen. And to Andrew Crofts for help in bringing my story to life.

Thanks, too, to
New York Times
journalist, Ian Urbina, and Sean Coughlan of BBC News Online magazine for shining their light down into my laneway when I so much needed it. And to the bloggers everywhere, whose encouragement, support and compassion helped me through the darkest months, and to believe in myself again.

For those whose practical help I was so grateful for: to Hugh for the sleeping bag; to Reverend Jim for the bag of food that got me through a bank holiday weekend I don’t know how I would have got through otherwise; for the replacement St Christopher that was sent to me poste restante, and for all the other help that seemed to turn up just when I was most in need of it. I hope all your kindnesses come back to you many times over.

To all those people who are still locked in their own chains of abuse. I hope this book comes into some of your hands, and that my story gives you hope that there
are
second chances—that however impossible it seems, you can survive and can move on.

Lastly, and especially, to Claire and Sunil for coming when you did. To the other Andrew, for not turning your back when you were the first one I got back in touch with and told about this book and how I had been living; for the bolthole in Cornwall and all those long drives down; and for chocolate and your faith in me. I am very grateful. Love and thanks to Kate, also, for getting back in touch, and for all the late-night phone calls and the best margaritas. And to Alex, for reminding me of the Emerson quote you stuck to the side of my computer: ‘Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.’

This is a work of non-fiction. In order to protect privacy, some names and places have been changed.

HarperElement An Imprint of
HarperCollins
Publishers
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

The website address is: www.thorsonselement.com
and
HarperElement
are trademarks of
HarperCollins
Publishers
Limited

Published by HarperElement 2007

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Anya Peters asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

EPub Edition © SEPTEMBER 2009 ISBN: 978-0-007-34830-5

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.