Forget our current love of true crime; it was around the turn of the millennium that we were truly sick and twisted. Back then, the biggest trend in non-fiction was “misery lit”, as readers young and old binged on stories of abuse. We were initiated into this bleak era by the viral 1995 publication of A Child Called “It”, Dave Pelzer’s childhood memoir of sadistic abuse at the hands of his narcissistic alcoholic mother. Pelzer continued to pump out many follow-ups alongside a host of copycats – all grouped together on a shelf in Waterstones ominously labelled “Painful Lives”.
In retrospect, all that torture and trauma in books reflected (and helped to prompt) a democratisation of suffering; we began to talk with others about our childhood struggles. It was the beginning of anonymous connectivity with the internet, blogs and online chat rooms. In the UK, major legislation was established around child protection systems and criminal record checks for the first time ever.
