Gloria Eveleigh was a research metallurgist before a career change to social work. She designed and led the first local authority multi-agency framework facilitating the safety of vulnerable people. She has run a safeguarding consultancy and worked across the UK setting up community groups and training volunteers to support the recovery of victims of abuse. The mother of three grown up children and five grandchildren, Gloria lives on the south coast of England, writing, and chairing her local Parish Council. She has written and illustrated 24 phonics-focused picture storybooks for small children. In the 1940s and 50s, when child abuse was hidden, not believed, and not acknowledged, Gloria had first-hand experience of growing up in a dysfunctional family. She and her three siblings were the victims of familial physical and sexual abuse. Once Small Word is a novel based on Gloria's childhood experiences. She hopes that it will help others who suffered childhood abuse, or who are currently experiencing abuse, to believe in themselves, to know they are not alone, and to know for sure that there is hope of recovery. Her aim is also to give professionals working with victims a greater insight into the short and long-term effects of abuse on those who experience it.