Zoe was born in the poorest street in Liverpool. Enchanting in her beauty and sweetness, she was also the youngest of five - filthy, undernourished and starved of love. For her mother had died at her birth and her father drowned his sorrows in drink.
Zoe: the name meant "life". In the Merseyside slum, life meant brutality, degradation and crushing poverty. But Zoe was not like her brothers and sisters. She was bright and sensitive, and she was determined to escape their miserable existence. Escape would bring her wealth, luxury and love - and heartache she could never have imagined . . .
