Jeanette Winterson

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/oct/28/jeanette-winterson-all-about-my-mother

I highly reccomend Winterson's story of surviving a brutal childhood.

Jeanette Winterson: all about my mother

When her mother burnt her treasured hidden store of paperbacks, Jeanette Winterson decided the time had come to start writing herself. She looks back on how her loveless upbringing led to her becoming a writer