Some will be sceptical about this revelation, assuming that because she is a celebrity Faithfull must be promoting something (in fact she is not) or that she is taking on her mother’s pain as a form of self-serving aggrandisement. But that is altogether too simplistic – to say nothing of lacking compassion. Imagine how it may have been for Faithfull, caught in an intimate bond with her mother, looking to her for reassurance that growing up is a safe thing to do, yet forever aware of her mother’s raging distress and unable to soothe her. Isn’t it logical that the male act that lies at the root of all this should crystallise into something that must be blotted into oblivion with drink and drugs?