In the first week my book "Someone to Watch Over me" went straight to number 7 on the Sunday Times Bestsellers list for non fiction paperbacks.
Week two and three it was at number 5.
This week it has gone to number 4
All of this has been done with two radio interviews, one of which was on REM.FM and one newspaper interview.
There was also a piece in the Asda magazine and a two week poster campaign across the UK.
I felt that once my book entered the top ten bestsellers that the media (be that magazines or newspapers) would then want to do interviews because this was, and is, a subject that effects so many people, in so many ways.
The reason I believe that the media don't want interviews now is because of saturation.
There are so many "Misery Memories" out there and when they first started coming out everyone wanted to do an article. But now, it would seem, they think they are a "BIT DEPRESSING".
A case of, been there, done that, read the book.....................
How many times do we hear they are a bit depressing when it comes to war stories, murder mysteries etc............we don't, and all of these things are real life too.
My book was written for everyone, not just for survivors but to help others understand the depth of pain that abuse and rape causes and how this can affect more than just the survivor.
It is a brutally honest book and I make no excuses or apologise for that, abuse and rape do not come with frills.
At this very moment we have a little girl in the headlines who has been abducted, Her future at the moment is unknown........... Lets hope that this situation has a happy ending, but if the worst were to happen would the media also class this as depressing.
1 in 3 to 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 7 boys will be abused in their life time, that is depressing, but it won't go away, it's happening now and it will sadly never go out of fashion.
This is why I have written my book, to reach out to everyone so they have a greater level of understanding. It is only with this awareness we can ever hope to change our laws and protect the innocent.
Please go out and buy "Someone To Watch Over me" get everyone you know to buy it and lets prove the media wrong!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Well done Izzy, for being so strong and writing your book. You hang in there. Brightest Blessings, Saucepan. x
i have just finished your book and couldn't put it down, well done you it must have taken a lot of courage, i too feel i would like to tell my story,completely different to your story....mine is a story of loss and how i have adjusted. where did you start when you first harboured thoughts of writing ? i would be very interested to know.
I came across this book last week at work when I asked boss could I borrow it, I sat n read half the book in one go I couldn't put it down, your a great icon for victims out there. you went through so much and as a young woman myself I could never imagine what you went through you amazed me I wept through this book but to know you trying to help others made me smile, please let me know if I could ever help your campaign. xxx
My wife has been reading the book and got me to read a couple of pages (I had been brought up to live by the rules children should be seen and not heard....it will destroy you as sure as any abuse can.) I struggled to read it as I was in tears as it echoed so much of my early life; I too had been brought up with the same values but in 1967 at the age of 5 my (by then divorced) mother had to go away for treatment for cancer and I was taken into the care of nuns in a Catholic children's home in Liverpool. It was traumatic enough just to be there but as the days and weeks went on I was systematically abused physically, psychologically and sexually, not by male priests but by one particular nun. When my mother came out of convalescence she reported the abuse to the police and church authorities. Their response; as a single mother you should be grateful these good people were here to help you. So my mother moved and removed me from the Catholic school and put me into a protestant one. And I lead my life in shame and in the belief that I had to be grateful that my abusers had taken me in.
It has eaten away at my life to this day (I'm now 48) - I have great difficulty with friendship or any sort of relationship, even working ones. I have very low esteem and no confidence in my own abilities. Although this should be the prime of my life I am a shell of ill health and had to give up my well paid professional job some 6 years ago, so we now live in poverty. Most painful of all though is that it is now my wife and child who also suffer as I am not an easy person to live with because of the abuse I suffered. But you are quite right; it is the burden we carry that causes more harm than the original abuse.
I'm not surprised that the UK media have shown little interest in the book or Izzy Hammond. Had this been Eire it would have been much different. The UK does not want to recognise that such abuse goes on under the bastions of trust and authority. Much less do they want to accept that nuns are capable of such abuse. Quite frankly, if I could get my hands on my abusers, I'd crucify them.
Post a Comment