Bed of Black Flowers: Diary of an Unwelcomed Child

Against the back drop of a housing estate on the outskirts of London from the mid 1950s; SHIRLEY tells her story of abuse and the repercussions and affects on mental health, trust and relationships. Shirley is born at the end of world war two, to a mother who thought her child-bearing years were over and having failed to abort Shirley, greets her arrival with resentment and rejection, which continues throughout Shirley's childhood. We meet Shirley aged nine, already self-harming; an anxious, isolated child, eager to please and desperate for affection and as such becomes the perfect victim for abusers of all kinds. Shirley’s story of her journey into adulthood is harrowing in parts, though one of courage and self-discovery; she tells it with humour and candour.