Book review: Enough Abuse

ENOUGH
ABUSE

Marilyn E Hawes and Jo Evans,

ISBN 0954952901, £2 (www.enoughabuse.co.uk)

STAR RATING 2/5

It is clear that
Hawes and Evans are well intentioned and want to prevent children
being abused. It is not so much what they say that’s a problem –
it’s the way they say it, writes Kathryn Stone.

Enough Abuse has some useful facts and information for parents and
children but it is set out in such a jumbled and contradictory way.
For example, the suggestion to “USE AND RESPOND TO YOUR NATURAL
INSTINCT!” is at odds with information on the previous page: “The
abuser uses a game of power and control. It is a mind game as well
as a sexual act. The family is under a similar control or spell
based on their trust.”

The booklet makes full use of RANDOM CAPITALS and seems to have no
logical progression. It has a beginning, a muddle and an end (to
borrow from Philip Larkin). It would have been better to be clearer
at the start who this is for, why they are writing (and editing) it
and what they wanted to achieve.

I shared the booklet with other parent governors and they thought
that, although some parts were useful, its credibility was
undermined by the back page voucher for Steve Gubbins portrait
studios (with the authors as models) and a 10 per cent discount
with Debbie (Steve’s make-up artist) for body bronzing and
massage.

Stay out of the portrait studio and go back to the drawing
board.

Kathryn Stone is a parent governor and a former child
protection social worker