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    Beating the Odds: From shocking childhood abuse to the embrace of a loving family, one man's true story of courage and redemption
    Unavailable
    Beating the Odds: From shocking childhood abuse to the embrace of a loving family, one man's true story of courage and redemption
    Unavailable
    Beating the Odds: From shocking childhood abuse to the embrace of a loving family, one man's true story of courage and redemption
    Ebook219 pages6 hours

    Beating the Odds: From shocking childhood abuse to the embrace of a loving family, one man's true story of courage and redemption

    By Paul Connolly

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    One man's remarkable tale of endurance and survival—vivid, disturbing, but ultimately uplifting, as the beaten child, once told he was rubbish and would never be worth anything, becomes a man with the heart to love, live, and embrace the futureAs Paul Connolly struggled to leave behind his painful, humiliating childhood in the notorious St. Leonard’s children’s home, the ghosts of his past would not let go. The pedophiles and sadists had damaged so many kids. Some had died, from suicide or heroin. Others, like Paul, had emerged, battered and illiterate, to try to find a place in the world. When a fall from a roof shattered his boxing ambitions, he survived in a brutal underworld of routine violence, before eventually building a career as a celebrity fitness trainer, working with the stars of fashion and film. After Against All Odds became a surprise bestseller, everything changed for Paul. He found himself speaking at the House of Lords, appearing on TV and getting involved in projects with abused kids and illiterate adults. But a rare heart infection almost killed him, and the old demons still haunted him. Four years later, Paul has made a new world for himself, centered on his young family and a successful training business that mends broken bodies, builds confidence, and changes lives for the better.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn Blake
    Release dateOct 1, 2014
    ISBN9781784181406
    Unavailable
    Beating the Odds: From shocking childhood abuse to the embrace of a loving family, one man's true story of courage and redemption
    Author

    Paul Connolly

    Paul Connolly is an award-winning journalist and author whose work has appeared in the Monthly, Guardian Australia, the Age, and the Sydney Morning Herald. The author of the weekly flash fiction column 'Kitchen Sink Drama' in Good Weekend magazine, he has written and edited a number of books. These include Kitchen Sink Drama, Father Figures, Sucking the Marrow Out of Life, and The World's Weirdest Sports. He lives in Brunswick, Melbourne, with his partner and their two daughters. He played football throughout his youth and the older he gets, the better he was.

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