It Happened Like This

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A01=Vicky Foster
Author_Vicky Foster
best books for her
best books for him
best new voice
biography
brave
Category=DNBL1
Category=DNC
Category=DNXC
Category=DNXR
Category=JBFK
Category=JBSF1
domestic violence
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
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eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
feminism
gripping
groundbreaking
heroism
London Bridge Attack
memoir
provocative
PTSD
social media
terrorism
thought provoking
true crime
untold story

Product details

  • ISBN 9781526656544
  • Weight: 194g
  • Dimensions: 128 x 196mm
  • Publication Date: 05 Jun 2025
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
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A searing, inventive memoir that interrogates misogyny, heroism and women’s power in an often-unsafe world through the lens of Vicky’s Foster’s own traumatic background.

How do you get close to people when the people close to you keep shattering your world?


Vicky Foster thought she’d finally escaped violence when her abusive ex-partner was murdered. Vicky was 25. She tried to draw a line under the past and move on with her life. This meant overcoming PTSD, trusting people again, building her career and ultimately, learning to return to herself. But, 16 years later, the past came crashing down on her, when one of her ex-partner’s murderers hit the headlines. This time, as the 'hero' of the 2019 London Bridge terrorist attack.

Lyrical and raw, It Happened Like This is a book about misogyny in all its forms, about heroism and villainy, about class and the climate of neglect created by austerity, but most importantly it’s a book about women and their power, explored through the prism of Vicky’s story.

Vicky Foster is an award-winning writer, performer and poet from Hull who has broadcast extensively across the BBC. She has published two collections of writing and is currently working on her first novel whilst studying for a PhD in English and Creative Writing. She won The Society of Authors’ Imison Award at the 2020 BBC Audio Drama Awards for her Radio 4 play Bathwater, and last year her Radio 4 documentary, Can I Talk About Heroes? was reviewed in the national media. She has written poetry for radio, podcast and TV, delivered writing projects and creative writing workshops for a wide range of organisations, and performed at festivals and events across the North. She is a writer-in-residence for First Story, working with schools to help young people write their own stories.

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