Kelly, Judith 1943-

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Kelly, Judith 1943-

PERSONAL:

Born 1943, in Southampton, England. Education: Attended Chelsea School of Art.

ADDRESSES:

E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Television producer and writer. Has worked for TV-am, Reuters and BSkyB.

WRITINGS:

Rock Me Gently: A True Story of a Convent Childhood, Bloomsbury (London, England), 2005, updated edition, 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

In her memoir, Rock Me Gently: A True Story of a Convent Childhood, Judith Kelly recounts her life at an orphanage run by Catholic nuns. The story begins with Kelly being sent to live at Nazareth House in East Sussex, England, in the 1950s. She is eight years old at the time and her alcoholic father has just died. She is sent to the home as her mother begins searching for a new place to live. Kelly soon finds that her supposedly "temporary" home is an institution where physical, emotional, and sexual abuse is rampant. Although Kelly is told by her mother that she would be there for only a few months, the months turned into years as Kelly receives no word from her mother. Kelly forms close bonds with other girls, especially with Frances McCarthy. However, Frances and another girl, Janet Dover, drown during a trip to the seaside in 1953. According to the author's account, the two eleven-year-old girls perished as the supervising nuns looked on and did nothing to save them except to kneel down on the beach and pray.

In her memoir, the author details years of unbelievable cruelty and abuse, from doing heavy housework to frequent beatings. The author also writes about later in her life and time she spends at a kibbutz in Israel where she meets a woman who is a survivor of the holocaust. This woman helps unlock Kelly's feelings about the nuns and responsibility for Frances's death. Kelly also reveals her meeting years later with one of the nuns who persecuted her and her friends.

Kelly's book did receive some unwanted attention as the author was charged with plagiarism in the original publication of the book in 2005. In an article in the London Times, Jessica Berry wrote that the author noted that she did copious research for her book by reading numerous other books, both fictional and real. "I read and read, and I took copious notes," Berry quoted Kelly as saying. "I knew I had a moving story to tell. I took notes from books and most of the time I would write the title and page number next to phrases I liked." Kelly added: "When I came to write the book four years later, I obviously forgot on some passages. It was a genuine mistake." An updated version of the book was published in 2006 with an explanation of the mistake by the author and the plagiarized passages rewritten. In a review of the updated version of the book, a Kirkus Reviews contributor noted: "The apologetic introduction, which seeks to explain how a woman still grieving over her childhood found comfort and meaning in the works of more talented writers, offers Kelly's truest and most moving prose."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Kelly, Judith, Rock Me Gently: A True Story of a Convent Childhood, Bloomsbury (London, England), 2006.

PERIODICALS

Bookseller, July 8, 2005, "Kelly Embarks on Rewrite of Memoir," p. 12; August 19, 2005, "Kelly Paperback Postponed," p. 9; September 8, 2006, "Bloomsbury Rocks Again with Kelly," p. 7.

Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2007, review of Rock Me Gently.

Telegraph (London, England), August 6, 2006, Sam Leith, "Sounds Familiar? When ‘Memories’ Seem to Spring from Other Literary Source."

Times (London, England), November 9, 2005, Jessica Berry, "I'm Not a Writer but a Fool, Says Plagiarist."