Misery Porn

'Tear jerker' - apparently that's the name for this dreadful new genre I've noticed, also known as a misery memoir or, far more descriptively, as misery porn. They're the ones with depressed kids all over the front of the book. You know how it is... one minute you're gently wheeling a trolley down the end of Tesco's cleaning aisle, the next minute you turn a corner, bravely march past an alluring display of multi-flavoured Kit-Kats, and there they are. Staring...

Row upon row of aching, soulful eyes, usually embedded in a small child's head (although there seems to be no guarantee of this), gently faded out into ghostly white. Perhaps a tear or two clusters at the corner of each eye. There are little bunches of blonde hair and a cute button nose, and oh - the titles! Daddy's Little Earner (by Maria Landon, taglined 'A heartbreaking true story of a brave little girl's escape from violence'). 'When Daddy Comes Home' (by Toni Maguire, taglined 'She finally thought she was safe').

There's more. 'Damaged', by Cathy Glass, a 'heartbreaking true story of a forgotten child'. Next to it, we have David Thomas' 'Tell Me Why, Mummy: A Little Boy's Struggle To Survive. A Mother's Shameful Secret. The Power To Forgive.' There are hundreds of them! 'Please Daddy, No' sits next to 'Don't Tell Mummy', with 'The Little Prisoner' and 'Abandoned' crying out for attention on the shelf below. 'Street Kid' and 'All In My Head' dare to branch out into the older market - the kids on the front of these ones look about nine rather than all snub-nosed and four-ish. 'The Invisible Girl', 'Daddy's Rules' and 'Cry Silent Tears'... on and on they go.

I've had enough; my eyes flick back to that first one: 'Daddy's Little Earner' - the title's probably more apt than you'd think. Child abuse: it's the new Mills And Boon.