Unbeaten

For Kim Woodburn, finding fame in her 60s in the smash-hit television series How Clean is Your House? with fellow dust-buster Aggie Mackenzie is like living a fairytale. Often, however, she has simply wished that she had never been born, for Kim has overcome horrific emotional and physical abuse, both at the hands of her alcoholic mother and her philandering, abusive father.

In her brave and revealing story, Kim's memories of growing up are not of love and cuddles, but of beatings and random cruelty. Shuttled between the brutal houses of her warring parents, a succession of miserable children's homes, and a grim convent, Kim's past has cast a long shadow over her life. But just before her 16th birthday, she finally made her escape. It has taken decades of hard work, and a wonderfully happy marriage, to conquer depression, but she has now emerged unbowed and unbeaten as Britain's Queen of Clean.