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Customers say sept 2026

Customers find this book inspiring and well-written, with one review noting how it provides insight into the author's life. The story is engaging, with one customer describing it as a gripping tale of poverty with a happy ending, and many mentioning they couldn't put it down. Customers describe the book as emotional and heartbreaking, though opinions about its accuracy are mixed.

AI Generated from the text of customer reviews

Back cover description

This inspiring and uplifting true story shows how a damaged childhood can become an asset, in fighting back and winning against all odds. This compelling story is a tribute to all those brave women who believe in “yes we can”. Mary’s life was always a miracle of survival. It is a tale of courage and responsibility, as she battles to keep herself and baby sister from starvation and TB, sometimes with fun and laughter, and at other times so desperate that we are drawn to tears. But when her best friend steals a rifle, we listen to her heartbreaking plea to the Samaritans as her life is crushed.  It is a story of heartbreak and passion, a blinding love so certain that it comes but once in a lifetime. She finds her freedom to study at university, and doing what she does best, saving damaged children like herself.

Cloaked in the underbelly of society she suffers the burden of despair and starvation in shocking detail. By some miracle she finds the courage and strength to keep her baby sister alive, and eventually she escapes. A close friendship with Joyce, brings her to a 30th birthday and a tragic shooting that sends her into a spiral of despair, and a desperate plea to the Samaritans. 

About the Author)

Born in Edmonton, London, 1948, Mary Hayward (pseudonym) graduated in Education, and taught IT at College’s throughout the UK. Thereafter she trained as a psychotherapeutic counsellor and worked for the Pupil Advisory Service in Guernsey, counselling children. Married to Mike, she is retired, and lives in Cornwall.

Mary tells her true emotional journey from 1957 London glue-trap poverty, to a university graduate as a Counselling Therapist and College Lecturer.