Richard McCann's account of his childhood became a huge bestseller in the UK. In it, he narrated the painful story of how he and his sisters were left without a mother when the Yorkshire Ripper killed his first victim, Richard's mother, Wilma McCann. Just A Boy was praised for its relentless and unsentimental portrayal of a neglected childhood at the hands of an abusive father and indifferent authorities. In The Boy Grows Up, Richard uses the success of Just A Boy to try to save his sister and describes his efforts to understand his past, while learning more about the impacts of traumatic childhoods and loss.