Rock Me Gently

Book excerpt: A harrowing and moving memoir about childhood and coming to terms with the past 'Simple yet shocking ... Sad and disturbing, it's unexpectedly uplifting too' Elle 'A searing account of the emotional and physical cruelty meted out at the orphanage' Sunday Times 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. But 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 from the girls around her, and especially the bright, angel-voiced Frances. When a tragic accident robbed Judith of her dearest friend, the memories were too traumatic to confront. It was not until years later, on a Kibbutz in Israel, that a friendship with an elderly Holocaust survivor gave Judith the strength to revisit her past - and the orphanage of her broken childhood.