Best-selling author Katriona O’Sullivan on her memoir ‘Poor’ and growing up in poverty

The author of a highly acclaimed book about poverty and how it affects children has spoken to FRANCE 24 about how the worst part of her own difficult childhood was feeling that she was not loved. “Poor” is the story of Katriona O’Sullivan, who grew up in abject poverty and chaos in a family of five children. She became pregnant and homeless at just 15 years old and barely survived for the next five years. Yet O’Sullivan has not only survived – she has thrived, become an academic and published her memoir, which has now been translated into French as “Pauvre”. She spoke to us in Perspective.