Pick Up the Pieces

Description

Pick Up the Pieces is an exclusive insight into the mind, thinking and ground-breaking work of sex-offender expert Ray Wyre (1951-2008), containing an analysis of and insights concerning his book with Tim Tate, The Murder of Childhood.

Explaining why we should listen to children and how we can increase the chances of making them safe, the book shows how the author was left to unpick the chaos of Wyre’s personal life, his debts incurred in pursuit of his mission, gambling and the free-spending lifestyle that stood at odds with and was an escape from his intense professional commitment.

Charmaine Richardson’s highly personal and revealing account describes how she was abused as a child within her comfortable, middle-class London home. It describes the ‘time bomb’ for her and her family, something that led to depression, counselling and a chance meeting with sex-offender expert Ray Wyre, who she married in 1999. A large part of the book is given over to her life with Ray, his work at the Gracewell clinic, analysis of The Murder of Childhood (2nd edn, 2018), and the failure of politicians to heed his warnings about how we need to understand and deal with perpetrators.

The book also contains the author’s own views on bringing up children to feel safe, comfortable and resistant to the devious ways in which paedophiles operate, including by the language we use with ‘little people’.

Reviews

‘Strongly recommended …. A beautifully written memoir’— Probation Journal.

‘One of the many strengths of (this) touching memoir… is that [the author] gives us an insight into what made this extraordinary, vital crusader on behalf of children tick…’— Tim Tate.

Author

Charmaine Richardson is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse who has pursued a variety of careers: counselling, home tutoring and funeral celebrant. She met and married Ray Wyre—the nationally acknowledged expert in the sexual crime field—in the late-1990s.