Title: Let me tell you
Description: A powerful story of a childhood destroyed by sexual abuse. Used at whim by his mother and 'Uncle Fred', McCabe portrays a disturbing picture of growing up in Christchurch during the 1930s, where he lives a semi-wild existence, virtually abandoned by family and friends. With the 'Welfare Lady'providing the only support and consistency in his early life, Tony moves from school to school and from foster home to foster home, beset by behavioural problems no one understands and that he cannot control. At the age of 12 he is farmed out as a labourer, and later works on the Lake Pukaki power project in the 1940s. Marriage and raising a family bring some stability to his life, and setting up his own business gives him a reliable livelihood, but the time must come to pay the piper and exorcise the ghosts. Anthony McCabe's story is ultimately one of survival and hope.
Subjects: Childhood and youth, Male sexual abuse victims, Biography, Incest victims, Adult child sexual abuse victims
Places: New Zealand, Christchurch
People: Anthony McCabe