The following story is true.This book is about my novel, The Lessons.At the age of nineteen, I made the momentous decision to pen this novel – on 23 April 1985 to be precise. I know this because I kept a diary.As soon as I began, an illness cut me down for a week. I thought nothing of it, determined to begin this novel as soon as I felt better. Little did I realise how this novel would affect my life.I kept it secret from family and friends. I feverishly read books about writing novels, sitting at my flat for hours, eking out a few sentences. During episodes, I would lose weight and become ill.My novel appeared to have no bearing upon my life at all. A psychopath operates in a creepy old house called the Hollows. I was living in a sleepy village with my parents and siblings. I did guileless things like babysitting, writing, toymaking and art.During my writing, I connected with this strand. This strand grew addictive. It ran deep, powerful, compulsive, deathly, creepy, and devastating.Thirty years after beginning this novel, I would uncover the source of this strand.Illustrations and excerpts from my diaries are included. Madeleine Watson lives in the UK and writes under a pseudonym.At the age of 51, she discovered she had been repeatedly raped at the age of 3 by an uncle who shared her toddlerhood home.During oblivion, she kept a diary, wrote children's mysteries, novels and short stories. She also went to art school for 5 years. Unbeknown to her, clues to her horrific toddlerhood had seeped into her creations.How she finally learned the truth is described in her books along with further revelations. Having lived through this experience, she is able to describe what life has been like for someone whose toddlerhood has been brutalised prior to the dawning of her conscious awareness.
