Judy King is a survivor, and so much more. Born into a dysfunctional family in Sydney’s leafy North Shore, she grew up in a post-war era, where etiquette and social mores were all-important, and what went on behind closed doors was nobody’s business.

But there were plenty of people who had an inkling, and along the way of Judy’s traumatic suffering at the hands of her mother, father and extended clan, there are moments of such kindness so as to sustain her innocent spirit.

The repression of things too hard to bear causes internal scars and Judy (or rather ‘Agnes’) loses the ability to think c...