Spoilt - Terry Denby

Who cared? I was confused about why I had been taken from my mother. I felt lost, abandoned, dejected, unloved, unimportant, unwanted and I wondered where they would finally dump me.

This is the incredible true story of Terry Denby, fatherless and put into care by his own mother at the tender age of six. With nothing to call his own and no one to support him, Terry slowly begins to accept the bitter truth that he is totally alone. This startlingly honest and heart-rending account follows Terry through his early recollections of a lonely, misunderstood childhood spent in the cold surroundings of the East London 'Buildings', through to his tumultuous and confusing early adolescence in an uncaring children's home.

Denied all the opportunities children so desperately need, Terry's account builds a picture of a bewildered and deeply troubled boy who was let down time and time again by the very people he needed the most. Brutal, and often shocking in places, this powerful book evokes fifties Britain in astonishing detail. The author's ability to relate his harsh treatment at the hands of not only his mother, but also the authorities responsible for looking after him, brings this social period into stark reality.