Richard McCann's account of his childhood became a massive UK bestseller. In it he told the harrowing story of how he and his sisters were left motherless when the Yorkshire Ripper killed his first victim, Richard's mother Wilma McCann. Just A Boy was praised for its unflinching and unself-pitying account of a neglected childhood at the hands of an abusive father and uncaring authorities.

The Boy Grows Up is an account of how Richard used the success of Just A Boy to try and save his sister, and of his attempts to make sense of his past whilst learning more about the effects of traumatic childhoods and loss.