Angus author says tough childhood is the inspiration for book

An Angus pensioner has revealed that the physical and psychological abuse she suffered as a child has impacted on her whole life.

Although now aged 73, Arbroath woman Sheena Urquhart has never forgotten the verbal abuse and beatings she and her brother Roly suffered at the hands of their father, Roderick.

Sheena has now written a book about her childhood experiences called The Maister: A Family Terrorised by a Father’s Cruelty under a pen-name Jean Scott Borthwick. She said: “The psychological effects of being put down all the time has lasted all my life.

“I thought maybe if I wrote down what I can remember, it might help me and it really did.

“As I started it all came back to me and pouring out and pouring out.”

Sheena, who volunteers at the British Heart Foundation shop in Arbroath, said she hopes her book will make people think twice about abusing their children.

The book is available from Amazon.