Stolen Lives

The world’s third surviving set of quintuplets, Deborah, Samuel, Selina, Shirlene and Lisa were New Zealand’s darlings. Then their parents broke up and her mother married her killer. On the eve of their 50th birthday their full story is told for the first time, a tale about the strength of love and family and their ability not just to survive but to triumph.

It could have been any family of six children – except that five of them were born at once. The Lawson quins were a medical miracle and a national obsession. Their early childhood was idyllic, but when their parents’ marriage broke up, their mother married a man who terrorised them for eight years before killing her and himself when they were just 16. After that, the nation’s darlings were thrown into nightmare years of abuse and heartache, gangs and drugs, beatings and betrayals, from which they have slowly fought their way back. Based on unprecedented access to the quins themselves, and featuring many never before seen family photos, this is a story about the strength of love and family and their ability, in the face of horrendous obstacles, not just to survive but to triumph.

Little has been a full-time writer since 1998, prior to which he worked as a editor of magazines such as Metro and the New Zealand Listener. He’s written several biographies – including Arrested Development: the Aaron Cohen Story and After Everest: Inside the Private world of Edmund Hillary – and ghost-written several more, including Sir Ray Avery: Rebel with a Cause, Willia Apiata VC: Reluctant Hero and Paul Henry: What Was I Thinking.