David Challen - The Unthinkable : A Story of Control, Violence and My Mother

One Saturday in 2010, David’s mother struck more than twenty blows to the back of her husband’s head with a hammer after thirty years of abuse. In those few minutes, David’s life was changed forever.

Over the next decade, he led the fight to overturn her conviction; and in doing so he not only freed his mother and helped change the legal system, but also became a voice for the countless victims of coercive control across the country.

This is a powerful story of a son’s love for his mother; of an insidious form of abuse that must be better understood if we are to truly tackle it; and a fight that reshaped.

ABOUT DAVID CHALLEN

David Challen is a domestic abuse campaigner, author and keynote speaker. He successfully campaigned to free his mother Sally Challen in a landmark appeal raising awareness of the lifetime of coercive control she suffered in 2019. 
David continues to speak out against men's violence against women, coercive control and the impact of domestic abuse on children, as well as men's role in tackling misogyny.
David is an advisor to the Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales and an Ambassador for the Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT) and the Employers' Initiative on Domestic Abuse.

'Unthinkable stares down horror and heartbreak. A story told with unflinching courage and a compelling drive for the truth' 
LAURA KUENSSBERG