A01=Judith Kelly
Author_Judith Kelly
Category=DNBM1
Category=JBFK1
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Product details
- ISBN 9780747587149
- Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 04 Sep 2006
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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In the 1950s, shortly after her father's death, Judith Kelly was left in the care of nuns at a Catholic orphanage while her mother searched for a place for them to live. She was eight years old. Far from being cared for, Judith found herself in a savage and terrifying institution where physical, emotional and sexual abuse was the daily norm and the children's lives were reduced to stark survival. As the months became years and no word came from her mother, she sought comfort instead from the girls around her, and especially the bright, angel-voiced Frances, who seemed miraculously untouched by the nuns' persecution and the abject misery surrounding her. When a tragic accident robbed Judith of her dearest friend, the traumatic memories of the event were to trouble her deeply, long into her adult life. Years later, at a kibbutz in Israel, Judith met and befriended an elderly Holocaust survivor. It was a friendship that began with an instinctive recognition of the fear and suffering each had experienced, and one that would begin an emotional journey culminating in Judith's return to the Nazareth House orphanage to confront her memories and to achieve some measure of peace.
"Rock Me Gently" is an astonishing, moving and deeply shocking memoir, and a story that resonates in the mind long after the final page.
Judith Kelly was born in Southampton. After leaving a Catholic orphanage in the mid-1950's, she went onto study at the Chelsea School of Art. A television producer, she has worked for TV-am, Reuters and BSkyB. Now retired, Judith Kelly runs a support group for those who were abused by priests and nuns within the Catholic Church.
