LONDON–A British lawyer who wrote a bestselling memoir recounting a childhood of emotional and physical abuse is being sued for libel by her mother, who says the claims are fiction.

Constance Briscoe's 2006 book Ugly has sold more than a half million copies in Britain and was followed by a sequel, Beyond Ugly.

Briscoe, 51, grew up in poverty in south London but went on to become a lawyer and one of the first black women in Britain to be appointed a recorder, or part-time judge.

In Ugly, Briscoe alleges that her mother regularly beat and starved her before abandoning her when Briscoe was 13.

The book says Briscoe's stepfather once stubbed a cigarette out on her hand, and says that as a teenager she needed surgery on her breasts because of trauma caused by her mother's assaults.

Her mother, Carmen Briscoe-Mitchell, says these and other harrowing incidents are fiction. She is seeking damages from Briscoe and her publisher, Hodder and Stoughton. The case continued Tuesday at London's High Court and is expected to last two weeks.

The lawsuit follows other cases in which the truth of memoirs has been disputed. U.S. author James Frey faced condemnation in 2006 when his bestselling addiction memoir A Million Little Pieces was shown to have been substantially fabricated.

Earlier this year Ishmael Beah, author of a bestselling memoir about his time as a boy soldier in Sierra Leone, denied claims that he exaggerated his war service.