Looking for Christmas presents I discovered a new literary sub-genre of which I was previously unaware: the testimony of children who had been the victims of various kinds of child abuse, delivered through the dubious amanuenses of one or two authors who seem to have cornered the market. Each book-cover, like the covers of a sister sub-genre romance fiction, looked remarkably similar: pinks, blues and white (girls/boys/innocence); cursive script (first person testimony); and the downcast, pouty faces of blonde poppets of both sexes shot from a high camera angle. It made me think of the street urchin narratives of the nineteenth century, found in the journalism of W. T. Stead, or the life model lantern slides of Bamworth and Co, or the photography of Charles Dodgson for instance.

Shot in a Canberra book shop, a new sub genre: child abuse victim testimony packaged for the sentimental consumption of sympathetic readers

Shot in a Canberra book shop, a new sub genre: child abuse victim testimony packaged for the sentimental consumption of sympathetic readers

Shot in a Canberra book shop, a new sub genre: child abuse victim testimony packaged for the sentimental consumption of sympathetic readers