THRILLING READ
which had recently notoriously explored the coercive control of Helen Archer by her partner, Rob Titchener.
As she listened to Helen’s story, Walmsley-Johnson “began to feel an overwhelming compulsion to set something down about what had happened to me”.
She, too, had experienced coercive control, first by her husband, and again two decades later when, by now divorced, she met a charming French businessman, Franc, on a blind date.
At first Franc’s masterful behaviour – editing her wardrobe, insisting that she go to the gym — seemed evidence that he cared for her.
But a far darker pattern of abuse quickly emerged.
Her account of their relationship makes harrowing reading, but she concludes that something good came out of it: “Franc taught me how to protect myself.” |