Catch Me Before I Fall - Hardcover

Childs, Rosie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1852273607 ISBN 13: 9781852273606

Publisher: Virgin Books, 2006

Synopsis

'By the time I was seven years old, I understood that we were neglected by my mother who was absent from the house most days and most nights. We rarely received a bath or a wash and I presumed that the fact that my skin was several shades darker than the other kids' in my street was all down to accumulated grime rather than because of my different ethnic origin.' Rosie Childs was the talk of her Liverpool council estate when she was born, because she was black. Her mother and her mother's husband were both white and from birth she was stigmatised for this proof of her mother's infidelity. Suffering neglect from her mother, a prostitute and alcoholic, Rosie was left in a bare, filthy council house to fend for herself and her siblings until, aged nine, she was placed in the care of an order of upright and often cruel nuns. She finally embarked on a settled life as a nanny and pre-school teacher, but she couldn't escape from herself and the black cloud of her childhood. After suffering a breakdown, Rosie was placed in a series of dehumanising psychiatric hospitals for years, until she was helped to remember the horrifying secret of the childhood she thought she had buried forever. Now, with support as Rosie Childs, she has moved on, and is truly happy at last.

About this title

About the Author

Ghostwriter Diane Taylor is a journalist who writes for the Guardian, Observer and Independent. She met Rosie when Rosie spent time at the Crisis women's shelter in London.

From the Back Cover

By the time I was seven years old I understood that we were neglected by my mother, who was absent from the house most days and most nights. we rarely received a bath or a wash and I presumed that the fact that my sking was several shades darker than the other kids' inmy street was all down to accumulated grime rather than because of my different ethnic origin. Then I got a shock. Marie, who lived next door to us and was a doll-like child with beautiful blue eyes and blonde hair, decided to put me in her bath to try and excavate my white skin from beneath the layers of grime. She used Ajaz and a scrubbing brush. Her grandmother, Betty came in while she was inwittingly attempting ethnic cleansing: ' What on earth are you doing to Clare, Marie?' 'I'm trying to get all the brown dirt off, gran,' she replied, slightly breathless with exertion. There was no reason for her to be aware that people had skin of all different colours. I was the only child in my neighbourhood and in my school who was non-white and there was little knowledge of the existence of different races at that time in Page Moss. 'Leave her be, Marie, she was born like that,' Betty said in a pitying tone, as if one of my limbs were missing. 'Sorry, Marie,' I said feeling guilty that she had failed in her mission to reveal the true-whiteness of my skin.

From the Inside Flap

When Rosie Childs was born, as Clare Malone, her life was immediately different to those around her - she was a black child in an all-white family and on an all-white Liverpool council estate in the 1950's, and therefore living proof of her mother's infidelity. Ignored and beaten by her mother's husband, neglected and left to steal bread and milk to feed the younger children, clare struggled to live a normal childhood. even when she and her brothers and sisters were taken into care and eventually fostered, she was treated like a troublemaker and shunned for the colour of her skin. As Clare grew up, she tried to forget her past and flourished as a nanny, but she continued to be unsettled which led to a breakdown and spells in a series of dehumanising psychiatric institutions. Through anorexia, physical abuse, alcoholism and homelessness in London where she discovered the charity Crisis, clare plumbed the depths of despair before eventually, with support, unlocking deeply buried and shocking secrets and feelings from her childhood, allowing her to begin to live again. Over the course of her life, Clare often tried to reinvent herself, each time changing her name for a new beginning. Now as Rosie Childs, she is confident and positive survivor who has defied the odds to create her own destiny. Her tale of abuse, racism and of being a true outsider is also one of redemption, as Rosie at last finds peace with herself and the colour of her skin.

Edition details

• Publisher: Virgin Books
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1852273607
• ISBN 13: 9781852273606
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 244