Sold: A young girl betrayed by her mother into a life of vice

by Tess Stevens

What kind of a woman would sell her own child?

A monster.

Tess was just eleven years old when her mother sold her to a rich elderly man.

Grace ran a brothel in Croydon and she plunged her young daughter into a terrifying world of sex and depravity. Grace was ruthless in her pursuit of money and had a toxic mix of cunning and high ambition. Dangerous criminals visited the brothel every day, and Tess was exposed to things no little girl should see. A timid child who longed for her mother's love, she grew up in a world of unimaginable horrors with no one to turn to.

Her mother ensured that Tess followed her footsteps and began selling herself. She later opened a brothel too, but became known for looking after her girls and running it as cleanly and as fairly as she could. Along the way she encountered some fascinating characters, including Christine Keeler, the Kray twins and Myra Hindley, as well as numerous well-known actors and politicians.

Amazingly, after such a horrendous start in life, Tess has left prostitution and completely turned her life around.

SOLD offers readers a shocking insight into a criminal underworld and is a compelling account of one woman's recovery from the ultimate betrayal.

• ISBN10: 034096085X
• ISBN13: 9780340960851
• Publish Date: 30 October 2008 (first published 3 April 2008)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 8 April 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Imprint: Hodder Paperback
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Jo]

I'm not sure how to go about reviewing this book. It's not a story, it's real life. It's terrible what happened to Tess when she was younger. Her mother was... there isn't a word strong enough that isn't bad language. Detail is giving all the way through the book, even during the dreadful events of her life, but she doesn't go into too much detail. One can almost turn the page and try hard not to think about it, like Tess does herself, but it's so disturbing.

The emotion in this book is so strong, you can feel Tess' fear, her worry, her sadness. You can understand how she wants her mother to love her, but despair at what she puts herself hrough to try and gain it. The brainwash her mother puts her through, you just want to slap her.

An example; Grace covers her leg in lipstick, and wraps bandages round it, and tells Tess that God is punishing her for being a bad mother - because she must be if her daughter doesn't love her enough that she keeps visiting the lady upstairs and loves her instead. Her leg will bleed and bleed until she dies, unless Tess promises not to visit the lady upstairs anymore, and to love her mother. When she does, a miracle takes place, and God turns the injury into lipstick. It's disgusting.

Tess has had such an awful life, and reading all the things she had to go through made me so emotional. It's an eye opener for people to realise how normal - not lucky - we are who live good lives and have loving families.