"You live with someone for two years and then... they simply don 't exist."
Donna McLean was 30 when she met Carlo and her life changed overnight. She fell in love almost immediately. They moved in a few weeks later. They were engaged within months. The great love story of Donna ’ s life wasn’t just built on lies. It was one huge lie. Donna McLean is a survivor of the Spycops scandal.
Over four decades, British undercover police deliberately and systematically started relationships with women in order to infiltrate protest groups. They lived with these women, some had children with them, and when the job was done they simply left. We have heard very little from the women at the heart of this extraordinary scandal. Most felt forced to accept anonymity. Donna decided to drop her pseudonym last year so she could tell her story in her own words and under her own name. Small Town Girl is that story. Donna is a talented writer and her book is the intimate, visceral and shocking story of the lived experience of a woman whose life was commandeered by the British state and used as a prop by an institution meant to protect her.
This book is a memoir of the Spycops scandal but it’ s also the story of a truly brave, determined and inspirational woman. Learning the truth very nearly destroyed Donna. Now, with Small Town Girl, she has reclaimed her voice, so she can reveal the truth on behalf of herself and all the women at the centre of the Spycops scandal.