by 
Anne
by Zarina Macha
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‘Are you okay, Mummy? Did Daddy hurt you again?’
Anne Mason’s childhood in Richmond emulates suburban bliss, with a wealthy father and a loving mother. But behind the polished windows, Anne’s father terrorizes her mother, shattering their utopian home life with beatings and beer. Home-schooled on a diet of books and museums, knowledge becomes Anne’s only saviour.
One night her dad comes home with the news that her mother has left them forever. Unable to care for his daughter, Anne is sent to live with her kindly aunt and uncle. Struggling to settle into day school, Anne enrolls in Lakeland Boarding School. She meets and falls for gentle Karen, whose friends torment Anne and her troubled roommate Simone.
Forced to confront her traumatic upbringing, Anne learns the horrors of the past and present. Will love, hope, and inner strength prevail?
‘Anne’ is a powerful and dramatic YA tale about life, family and coming-of-age in and outside of London.
Content Warnings: Adult themes, mentions of rape, domestic abuse, sex, self-harm, and bullying
A Word from the Author
The story behind Anne is a fascinating one. I was nine years old and walking with my mum and brother when I saw a girl dressed all in black wearing lovely blue crystal earrings. She looked solemn, as if she was attending a funeral. The name ‘Anne’ popped in to my head, followed by the story; she grew up close to her mother; her father murdered her mother and then sent her to boarding school, where she was bullied by a girl named Karen. The school was called ‘Lakelands Boarding School’ after ‘Lakelands Shopping Centre’ mentioned in Vicky Angel by Jacqueline Wilson.
The story was too mature for me so I left the idea, vowing to write it one day. I resumed working on it when I was seventeen, getting several drafts down over five years. Publishing it this year has been very rewarding thanks to the reception from various bloggers and fellow writers. I’m looking forward to continuing my literary career. (I’ve self-published three other books; two are poetry volumes and one is another young-adult fiction book titled Every Last Psycho, featuring two novellas about girls with mental illness.)
(Zarina Macha, August 2019)