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Article: 'Harrowing, grisly, gut-wrenching... Sensational stuff! Not to be missed' Soaring sales for 'misery memoirs', true tales of abuse and suffering, have at long last delivered their authors - and publishers - a happy ending. But what, asks a traumatised Jeremy Clarke, is driving the publishing phenomenon?
- Article from:
- The Sunday Telegraph London
- Article date:
- December 18, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2005 The Sunday Telegraph London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Happy Christmas! says a jovial Santa stapled above the popular
biography section of my local bookshop. As I browse for presents, I
finger out The Little Prisoner by Jane Elliott. On the cover is a
sweet little girl with pigtails trailing a doll as she walks away.
It's a white, pocket-sized book with a purple, embossed title.
If it wasn't on the biography shelf you could easily mistake it
for a novel. "The number one bestseller,'' it says. And on the back:
"From the age of four, Jane Elliott carried a terrible secret ... she
was the slave of her stepfather - in every way imaginable.'' Opening
it at random, I begin reading. Four-year-old Jane has been summoned
to her stepfather's bedroom. ...