Megan Lloyd Davies

Daddy's Prisoner

by Alice Lawrence & Megan Lloyd Davies

In April 2008 the world watched in horror as news of Elizabeth Fritzl made worldwide headlines. But for one British woman the story was not the stuff of unimaginable nightmares. Alice Lawrence knew all too well the torture suffered at the hands of a father whose depravity knew no bounds. Because she too was kept prisoner by a father who repeatedly forced her to become pregnant – and it was only after the death of one of her beloved babies that Alice finally found the courage to escape and bring her abuser to justice.

Like everyone else, the story of Josef Fritzl’s awful abuse of his daughter had horrified me. Then I learned of Alice, who had also been abused for years by her father and forced to bear his children. But while Alice was sometimes physically locked up, her prison was more mental. I wanted to find out how this could happen – how does a child fall through the cracks and disappear, who is there to rescue them as an adult after years of abuse and what does it take to escape a life that has imprisoned you in your own fears?

Daddy's Prisoner was published by Simon & Schuster and became a Sunday Times bestseller. Translation rights sold in Germany.