Comedian and actor Alan Davies has opened up about the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father following his mother's death from leukaemia, in a raw and compelling new memoir. The book, titled 'Just Ignore Him', details personal experiences Davies had never discussed publicly before, including the sexual abuse he endured as a child.
Davies explained that he felt compelled to write about these experiences after years of avoiding them. 'I kept feeling their presence in their absence from so many parts of my life,' he said. 'I didn’t have the courage, strength or fortitude to confront them.' The decision to go public came after his stepmother discovered a cache of pornographic images of adolescent boys that belonged to his father, prompting Davies to take action on behalf of his younger self.
The memoir also reveals that Davies' mother was not told she was terminally ill while in hospital, a decision made by his father. Davies described the process of writing the book as 'going into the fire', but emphasised his desire to break the silence around such experiences. 'I’ve become a huge enemy of silence and secrecy,' he said. 'I regard them as the twin evils.'
