Abandoned: The true story of a little girl who didn’t belong - Tapa dura

'An uplifting story of survival.' Elle magazine

'A powerful and utterly compelling story of a child’s staggering courage.’ Judy Westwater, author of Street Kid

‘Hugely inspiring ... Anya’s story gave me goose bumps.’ Jane Elliott, author of The Little Prisoner

‘Truly Inspirational’. The Sun

About Anya's blog:

'It is often powerfully written, giving a human face to anonymous suffering.' BBC

'She is intelligent, observant, engaging company.' BBC

Separated from her real mother at birth, Anya grew up in terror of her drunken bullying uncle. Beaten, humiliated and sexually abused by him from the age of six, she thought her life couldn't get worse. But one day it did.

"I was used to Daddy screaming 'whore's child' at me, over and over again. But I couldn't get used to what he made me do."

Anya was too terrified to tell anybody about what her uncle did to her. But then he got careless and started abusing her in front of the other children. When her brothers started calling her a 'whore', Anya cracked and all her terrible secrets came pouring out.

Anya had always coped because there was one woman who loved her deeply, her 'Mummy'. But this time love was not enough. One morning 'Mummy' just left.

Determined to make a new life, Anya buried her feelings and tried to move on. But when she ended up homeless, living in her car, she knew she had to face her past if she was ever going to find happiness and security again.

Top 10 Sunday Times Bestseller, Abandoned is Anya's inspirational story of her fight to find love, acceptance and a place to belong.