Beethoven was a musical genius. He has given pleasure to millions. What is less well known is that he removed a nine-year-old child from his mother and embroiled himself in one of the most bitter, protracted custody disputes in childcare history.

Karl van Beethoven was the only child of Johanna and Kaspar van Beethoven, the composer’s brother. When Kaspar died, Beethoven was determined that Karl did not remain under his mother’s care. He loathed Johanna. He frequently referred to her as ‘poison’, claiming she had infected Karl with her ‘poison’. Beethoven was awarded guardianship over her child. Thereafter, his behaviour towards Karl, described in his own letters, in the observations of his contemporaries, and in court testimonies, constitutes one of the earliest, most comprehensive records of emotional and psychological abuse. This is the story of a child’s resilience and survival in the face of cruelty and intolerance, and of Beethoven’s failure to sever him from the mother he loved. It is a fictionalized memoir based on documented fact.