When seventy-year-old Maura Murphy discovered she had cancer she left her husband of fifty years & started writing her memoirs. Born chronically ugly & as cross as a briar into a poor rural homestead in 1920s Ireland Maura lived much of her adult life in England where she raised nine children & fought to keep together a family ravaged by poverty & alcohol. The voice of a silent generation of an immigrant-Irish underclass Maura Murphys tough & remarkable life is a compellingly written account of struggle & survival like no other. With all the immediacy & impact of Frank Mc Courts prize-winning ANGELAS ASHES Mauras voice is feisty funny & fearless. & she needed to be all those things to survive an extraordinary series of privations & abuses. Her story is compelling & upbeat despite everything.