Boy George's mother Dinah O'Dowd suffered humiliations and both physical and mental abuse for the best part of 40 years.

Her husband Gerald beat her on regular occasions and terrorised her with a knife several times during their married life. But the mother-of-six stayed with him.

The final kick in the teeth came when Gerald left her for another woman after 42 years of marriage. He married again within three months of their divorce in 2001.

Gerald died two years later after a massive heart attack. At his funeral a few people got up and talked about the man they knew, but Dinah didn't recognise the Gerald they spoke about at all.

Which is why she has written Cry Salty Tears, about the husband she knew.

Naturally, it is the Boy George connection which is going to attract attention - indeed, Dinah's famous son has written an emotional foreword to the book.

"As a bratty teenager, I am ashamed to say that I started to think of Mum as weak because I couldn't understand why she stayed in such a destructive marriage," he writes.

"Once I grew up a bit I realised that Mum had stuck out the marriage for her kids and because she truly loved my father and believed in the sanctity of marriage."

But Dinah's book is not about her relationship with her son. It is a story of the love and loyalty of a woman who believed that marriage was for life, for better or worse.

  • Hannah Stephenson