Pick Up the Pieces

Pick Up the Pieces

Charmaine Richardson's highly personal and revealing account describes how she was abused as a child within her comfortable, middle-class London home. It describes the `time bomb' for her and her family, something that led to depression, counselling and a chance meeting with sex-offender expert Ray Wyre, who she married in 1999. A large part of the book is given over to her life with Ray, his work at the Gracewell clinic and an analysis of his book, The Murder of Childhood (2nd Edn., Waterside Press, 2018) and the failure of politicians to heed his warnings about how we need to understand and deal with perpetrators. The book also contains the author's own views on bringing-up children to feel safe, comfortable and resistant to the devious ways in which paedophiles operate, including by the language we use with `little people'. Shows how the author was left to unpick the chaos of Wyre's personal life, his debts incurred in pursuit of his mission, gambling and the free-spending lifestyle that stood at odds with and was an escape from his intense professional commitment.

About the author; Acknowledgements; Encomium by Tim Tate; Dedication; Introduction; 1. The Meeting; 2. Once Upon a Time Bomb; 3. The Fall of Utopia; 4. Silly Me!; 5. `Hello Sailor'; 6. Moving On; 7. Ray and Me; 8. Language and Feeling Uncomfortable; 9. Unpacking The Murder of Childhood; 10. Farewell to Gracewell: Goodbye Common Sense; 11. Jane and Maureen; 12. Mind Your Language!; Epilogue; Index.

Written to coincide with the release of the New Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition of The Murder of Childhood by Ray Wyre and Tim Tate (2018, Waterside Press, ISBN 9781909976627).