About Tony Diamond
Dyslexia
Tony Diamond: I’m in good company, along with Sir Richard Branson, Tom Cruise, Sir Winston Churchill and Keira Knightly, what have we got in common? – dyslexia.
Back then my dyslexia was seen as an illness. Dyslexia was only formally recognised in Parliament in 1970 and added to the Education Act as requiring special attention in 1993. With my hyper-active behaviour added to the fact that educationally I was not achieving what my peers were, it was recommended that I be seen and assessed by a psychiatrist. After visiting and having been interviewed and tested, it was, at the tender age of 10, that I started receiving brutal and devastating electric shock treatment.
You would think that the rest of my childhood would have passed without event, you’d be wrong! The return of my Step-father in 1961 meant that I became a human punch bag and the abuse escalated. Still reeling from the effects of the EST and with my dyslexia as bad as ever, it was at age 15 I was officially signed over to Dr Barnardo’s and sent to work on a farm in the Australian outback.
The Kids
Quantas Flight QF531 Read about the kids who went to Australia.
Gallery
Some exclusive pictures to accompany the book
Thank you very much for sending me a copy of Pebble on The Beach. My Goodness, you have been through the mill! Well done for all of it and for managing to turn it into a very inspirational read.