MOST of us have happy memories of our childhood, not all, but most.

It is almost impossible to imagine the early childhood of Terry O'Neill.

Starting from neglect in his birthplace in Newport, he was pushed from pillar to post through hospitals and then a fostering service, before arriving at a farm in Shropshire where his brother, Dennis, was so savagely beaten, that he died. Slowly and very quietly and in the same room as Terry.

It was 1950 before Terry found any sort of 'love' or normality and that was in the Forest of Dean, among the Salesian monks at Blaisdon Hall.

Terry's brother, nicknamed 'Denny' then aged 13, was punched to death by a Shropshire farmer. The two brother's weren't even supposed to be at the farm, but a nearby household which had agreed to take them, decided they couldn't and suggested the nearby farm. Social services from Newport handed both boys over.

The police and social services' inquiry led to a court case where Terry was called as a witness. The case was so harrowing, it took World War Two off the front pages.

It also inspired Agatha Christie, first to write a radio play and then a theatre play, The Mousetrap, a murder mystery, which opened in 1952 and is now the longest running play of any media ever. Don't ask who Terry is in the play because it will spoil the ending.

Now 76, and back in Newport, Terry first arrived at Blaisdon Hall in 1950. He was keen on farming and the outdoor life and says: "I had a good feeling about Blaisdon straight from the start. Maybe I would be treated as an adult now and would no longer feel so vulnerable and insecure."

It has taken Terry nearly 15 years to write and tell his story and it has now been published in a book 'Someone to Love Us', selling 30,000 copies between March and June of this year.

Terry is the first to admit he's not always been the easiest husband or father. His wife, Pat, and daughters, Maria and Julie, might agree, but Terry says he's had recurring memories and problems with in the past, but writing the book may have brought the demons out.

You can meet Terry at the Chepstow Bookshop this Friday (November 26) from 1pm.