I thought that I might as well add to this. Currently I am reading "Ugly" by Constance Briscoe.
I strongly, STRONGLY recommend you read it if you like true stories.
It's, something, being only 14 and not a great reader, something I've not been able to put down.
This is the blurb if you are interested:
I handed my school photograph to my mother. She stared from the photograph to me. ‘Lord, sweet Lord how come she so ugly. Ugly. Ugly.’
Constance’s mother systematically abused her daughter, both physically and emotionally, throughout her childhood. Regularly beaten and starved, the girl was so desperate she took herself off to Social Services and tried to get taken into care. When that failed, she swallowed bleach ‘because it kills all known germs and my mother always told me I was a germ’.
When Constance was thirteen, her mother simply moved out, leaving her daughter to fend for herself: there was no gas, no electricity and no food. But somehow Constance found the courage to survive her terrible start in life. This is her heartrending – and ultimately triumphant – story.
Here is some more information on the book, featuring the author herself.