The Violets Are Mine by Lester Morris

Lester Morris is a young boy growing up in orphanages in England. He was born in 1940 and was put into the foster care system at the age of one. He never knows his father or his mother and therefore has no familial attachments.


While living in All Saint's Home, he learns that he has a birth brother, Doug, but he had no real sense of what that actually meant.

There was much abuse at the many homes that he lived in. There were beatings and no food at times.

Les joins the RAF when he gets old enough to do so and gets a letter from his "father" to come live with him. "Father" really takes Les for a fool and charges room and board at an excessive rate.

What troubles me is that we never really learn whether the individual claiming to be his father was actually his biological parent.

Les finally joins the military and moves to the United States.

It is very scary that children were being abused as badly as this young man, but nothing was done. It was a much quieter time and probably not as much media knowledge about this kind of abuse was known.

The book is well-written and you can understand the confusion that this young boy was feeling and are rooting for him to overcome his insecurities, as they are part of the treatment he was handed by some extremely mean individuals.

http://www.freewebs.com/lestermorris/