Eight Words

Eight Words is a haunting and courageous work of true crime, told not by a journalist or investigator, but by someone who lived through the devastation. Catherine, the younger sister of Celia Lunn-Field, bears witness to the appalling crimes of Brian Lunn-Field, a man who betrayed her family’s trust, murdered her sister, and decades later was revealed as the killer of schoolboy Roy Tutill.

This is more than the retelling of a crime. Catherine’s book places Celia at its heart: a beloved sister, mentor, and friend, whose life was cruelly cut short. With remarkable honesty, Catherine also recalls her own childhood — a time overshadowed by the harsh regime of convent schooling, where cruelty replaced innocence and fear took the place of play. It is in this context that the bond between the sisters shone most brightly, and it is that bond which gives the book its extraordinary power.

The title comes from the eight words Catherine will never forget — a phrase delivered with chilling detachment by the Mother Superior upon her sister’s death. From this moment of trauma, the book traces a long journey of survival, grief, and the search for meaning in the aftermath of the unthinkable.

Measured, poignant, and deeply affecting, Eight Words is both a personal testimony and an act of remembrance. It honours Celia, acknowledges the anguish of Roy Tutill’s family, and sheds light on the destructive reach of one man’s crimes. Above all, it is the story of a woman who endured, who found her voice, and who chose to speak so that others might understand the weight — and the resilience — of a life lived in the shadow of tragedy.