Never to Return

Book excerpt: 'I'd never been given a cuddle in my life, been read a bedtime story or called anyone mum or dad.'In the dead of night, the authorities swooped on the tinker camp. It was the middle of winter but the tents were still warm. This time they took Sandy Reid and his sister Maggie into care. Sandy was just one year old and he would never see his mother again."Sandy Boy" is the true story of what happened to Sandy Reid and to many other tinker children. Removed from his family and their way of life, Sandy was put into care for the rest of his childhood and denied access to his mother, his father and his family. This is also the story of the abuse he suffered - regular beatings at his foster family, cruelty at a children's home and, later, systematic abuse. Without any love or affection, Sandy became uncontrollable and at the age of eight he was sent to a psychiatric unit and separated from his sister, the last link he had with his family. Soon after, a chance meeting led to the discovery that his mother had died. It would be another six years before he got the letters from his mother that proved that she had never stopped looking for him.Letters that had been opened and read by the authorities but deliberately kept from him.This is the shocking story of how a child's life was destroyed and of a stolen generation, snatched in the night and forbidden from seeing their families. It's also the story of how one boy endured terrible hardship and deprivation and how he survived against all odds.