Maggie Me

Long-listed for the Green Carnation Prize and The Sunday Times' selection for Memoir of the Year. "This amazing book tells the story of an appalling childhood with truth and clarity unsmudged by self-pity. It grips from beginning to end.” — Diana Athill, Costa Book Award–winning author of Somewhere Towards the End Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes crossed with Billy Elliot, Maggie & Me is a unique, tender, and witty memoir of surviving the tough streets of small town Scotland during the Thatcher years. October 12, 1984. An IRA bomb blows apart the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Miraculously, Maggie Thatcher survives. In small-town Scotland, eight-year-old Damian Barr watches in horror as his mum rips her wedding ring off and packs their bags. He knows he, too, must survive. Damian, his sister, and his Catholic mum move in with her sinister new boyfriend while his Protestant dad shacks up with the glamorous Mary the Canary. Divided by sectarian suspicion, the community is held together by the sprawling Ravenscraig Steelworks. But darkness threatens as Maggie takes hold: she snatches school milk, smashes the unions, and makes greed good. Following Maggie’s advice, Damian works hard and plans his escape. He discovers that stories can save your life and — in spite of violence, strikes, AIDS, and Clause 28 — manages to fall in love dancing to Madonna in Glasgow’s only gay club. Maggie & Me is a touching and darkly witty memoir about surviving Thatcher’s Britain; a story of growing up gay in a straight world and coming out the other side in spite of, and maybe because of, the iron lady.

The New York Times bestselling author of Great Circle ‘Brilliantly written; the first ballet novel for grown-ups’ THE TIMES ‘A bravura display of high-performance art’ GUARDIAN

Four decades. Four generations. One World War. Raised in Stepney, the heart of London's East End, Maggie Riley is the only child of an Irish widower. When she becomes pregnant at the age of fifteen she is delighted, for it means she has captured her beloved Jim Burns. But life is a constant struggle - to bring up her four sons, to cope with a part-time husband, to 'better herself'. And that struggle is set against critical events of the era: the Depression, the Blackshirt marches, the devastation of World War II and its aftermath. Rejoice in Maggie's triumphs and feel the sorrow of her tragedies with this beautiful and moving tale of perseverance against all odds. *************** What readers are saying about MAGGIE 'A brilliant novel' - 5 STARS 'A fascinating story' - 5 STARS 'I loved the whole story' - 5 STARS 'Just wonderful!' - 5 STARS 'An amazing read' - 5 STARS

This special edition features a brand-new Long, Tall Texans novel, in which Michelle Godrey vows to show mysterious rancher Gabriel Brandon that she is no longer a girl in need of his protection, but a woman in need of his love, as well as a bonus story. Original.

Reproduction of the original: Maggie Miller by Mary J. Holmes

When Maggie Byrne attends the retirement dinner of her old music teacher at the convent school she attended, she discovers she has more in common with the founding nun, Cornelia Connelly, than she previously realised. As events in Maggie’s world progress and relationships break down, Cornelia’s remarkable life waltzes and weaves through Maggie’s, bringing them together through their shared love for music. Inspired by true stories of the nineteenth-century educational pioneer and reverend mother Cornelia Connelly and an ex-student of one of the schools she founded, Waltz With Me paints a moving picture of the challenges of marriage and motherhood, the calling of vocation, the nature of personal sacrifice for a greater cause and the impact of faith, infusing live waltz, sacred and folk music through the unfolding drama.