UNDER COVER
A duchess and a journalist bring hope to a million abandoned children
By Chris Rogers & Marshall Corwin
Authentic. 170 pages. £9.99
ISBN 978-1-8507-8858-4
Given the recent press coverage of the Duchess of York and her acknowledgment that she drunkenly touted access to information on Prince Andrew for a large sum of money, asking me to review a book describing her humanitarian acts didn’t have me exactly jumping up and down with excitement.
And reading the book can’t be described as much fun either. I am tempted to criticise the writing style: Chris Rogers, the author, is an investigative journalist for television and I suspect he suits this medium better. He involved a co-writer in the book, Emmy-award-winning documentary maker and writer Marshall Corwin. However, what is described in this volume is so shockingly moving that any quibbles about style would seem tawdry.
Horrific treatment
In 170 pages, Rogers and Corwin expose the horrific treatment of abandoned children in Romania and other countries, including Turkey. Children lie two to a bed, tied up and smelling of urine. Those who are allowed to sit up rock back and forth in mental distress. Some bang their heads against walls. When food is served, they all have to eat lying down. Chris and his cameraman posed as charity workers to gain access to the orphanages, and later pretended to be men eager to buy underage girls to rescue some from the sex trade.
Rogers approached the Duchess and she, along with her daughters, got involved with the project to try and change things. Rogers depicts her as a frank, caring woman, who is a loving mother and prepared to put her head above the parapet to try to make a difference. Maybe it is this quality that has misfired on Sarah over the years. You get the sense that she doesn’t shy away from risks. I left this book not only in tears at the horrors that all these children had to face, but also with a picture of a Duchess who may be incredibly flawed, as we all are, but cares enough to stick her oar into life’s tragedies.