From the Sunday Times & New York Times bestselling author comes the poignant & shocking memoir of Cathy's recent relationship with Tayo a young boy she fosters whose good behaviour & polite manners hide a terrible past. Tayo arrives at Cathy's with only the clothes he stands up in. He has been brought to her by the police but he is calm polite & very well spoken & not at all like the children she normally fosters. The social worker gives Cathy the forms which should contain Tayo's history but apart from his name & age it is blank. Tayo has no past. Tayo is an 'invisible' child kidnapped from his loving father in Nigeria & brought illegally to the UK by his drink & drugs dependent prostitute mother where he is put to work in a sweat shop in Central London. When he sustains an injury & is no longer earning he is cast out. When Cathy takes Tayo to school he points out a dozen different addresses where he has stayed in the last six months often being left alone. Tayo lies & manipulates situations to his own advantage & Cathy has to be continually on guard. Tayo's social worker searches all computer databases but there is no record of Tayo
- he has only attended school for 3 terms & has never seen a doctor. He & his mother have been evading the authorities by living 'underground'. With his mother recently released from prison Tayo is desperate to live with his father in Nigeria but no one can track him down or even prove that he exists.