Precious Williams, (pictured), the daughter of a Nigerian princess, was given away by her mother when she was three months old, and brought up by a private foster carer who answered the advertisement looking for someone to take a young baby in a 1971 issue of Nursery World.
The book, Precious: A True Story, tells of how her mother moved to England from Nigeria, married a man from Sierra Leone and became pregnant, before the relationship broke down.
A 57-year-old woman who had been a private foster carer for a long time took the baby in.
Ms Williams said that at the time, lots of private foster parents living in West Sussex would buy the magazine for the advertisements seeking carers to take on children.
After a year in foster care, Precious's natural mother came to collect her.
But the new arrangement did not work out, and Precious was subsequently re-advertised in Nursery World. She ended up being cared for by the original foster carer who took her back to her council estate in Midhurst, West Sussex.
The book tells of how she struggled to grow up as a black child in a white community, trying to find her own identity.
Ms Williams said that she was told by her foster parent that she was white.
Nearly four years later, her estranged older sister came to live with her and her foster carer in West Sussex after being brought up by her grandparents in Africa until the age of 13.
Precious stayed with her foster parent until the age of 18, when she went to Oxford University.
Ms Williams said, 'Seeing the advert in Nursery World prompted me to write a book about my life.
'A common theme throughout the book is my mother letting me down. I now have sporadic contact with my mother, who lives in London.'
FURTHER INFORMATION
Precious: A True Story is published by Bloomsbury (www.bloomsbury.com)
