Ugly

People who attribute bad attitude solely to one's upbringing should read this book. Constance Briscoe recounts her childhood - one filled with physical and mental abuse by her mother. Every Christmas, she received the same two presents - her doll (which her mother took from her before Xmas) and a spinning top. She gratefully receives them. In her early teens, she took a part time job on Saturday, which when her mother found out, took to mean that she could afford to pay rent for staying in the house. And stopped providing her with food, gas and electricity. Soon, she was unable to support herself so took on two other jobs to supplement her income to allow her to eat (occasionally) and have sufficient gas and electricty to be able to do her homework. All this while she was still going to school full time. She was constantly beaten and pinched by her mother. Referred to as Ugly, Pissabed (because she wet her bed until she reached her teens and was no longer under the control of her mother) and made to feel guilty for being born in the first place, Constance lost her hair because of the stress and went through an operation to remove lumps from her breasts (when she was 12) which were initially thought to be cancer but turned out to be caused by her mother's pinching.

So did Constance sit back, lament on her pitiful upbringing and hold out her hand to get benefits? No. She was ambitious and studied hard at school so she can realise her dream to become a barrister. For most of her teenage years, she supported herself through her multiple jobs to pay rent, food and bills. She put herself through university, despite her mother's attempt to sabotage that by tearing up her grant form which led to a year's delay to enter university. But she did it by working the extra year to get enough money to declare herself self-sufficient on the grant form.

Constance showed that persistence, ambition, hope and hard work can bring success even in the toughest conditions. And who had the last laugh? It ain't her mother, that's for sure. Constance became one of the first female black judges in UK. How about that for success?