Pebble on the Beach

Tony Diamond

QueenSpark Books

I was born Anthony Roy Bates on the 2nd September, 1949. I grew up with that name not knowing at the time that the man I knew as my father wasn't at all, and that my real father lived only two doors away. For various reasons I changed my name from Bates to Diamond in my thirties and have not looked back since.

The true story of one boy's ability to survive....against all the odds

Back in the 1950s and 60s what the man in the white coat said, stood...

Tony Diamond grew up in Brighton surrounded by an adult world which continually failed, abused and rejected him. He was given electric shock treatment at the age of ten, abandoned by his family at fifteen and packed off to Australia to fend for himself. An ill-fated attempt to stow away and return to England led to imprisonment in New Zealand and deportation.

At times painful, Pebble on the Beach is always hopeful. It is the strength and optimism of one man, Tony Diamond, that elevates this heart wrenching story into a gripping and powerful personal history.

Having read many, many letters and accounts written by children sent overseas, I consider this book to be an outstanding account of a triumph over adversity .
Dame Gillian Wagner  - Chair, Barnados 1978-1984