Dr. Diana English completed a Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Ph.D. in Child Welfare. She worked in both local and national public and private agencies with a focus on protecting children and strengthening families. With over 90 publications on child abuse and neglect, Dr. English is considered a national expert on child maltreatment; Dr. English is currently retired and lives in Seattle, Washington.

There is a common belief that an ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness, as Diana did as a child and as an adult.  Even as a young child, she endured and survived unspeakable traumas and adversities. 

As a national expert on child abuse and neglect, Diana English is uniquely qualified to write this deeply personal memoir. The Well of Sorrow follows Diana and her young siblings in their determination to survive the household their mother deemed “too violent” to stay in. Diana’s childhood is one of violence and trauma but also a story of healing and survival sustained by sibling connection, serendipity, random acts of kindness, grit, and a will to survive.