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A unique, tender and witty memoir of surviving the tough streets of
small town Scotland during the Margaret Thatcher years
________________________ 'Shocking and funny in equal measure, and
will have you weeping with laughter and sorrow' Independent on
Sunday 'A work of stealthy genius' Maggie O'Farrell 'Certain
memoirs catch a moment and seem to define it, bottle it ... hugely
entertaining' Sunday Times It's 12 October 1984. An IRA bomb blows
apart the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Miraculously, Margaret 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. Damian Barr's critically acclaimed debut novel, YOU
WILL BE SAFE HERE, also available now.
An Observer, Guardian, Financial Times, Sunday Times South Africa,
Irish Times, Irish Independent, Big Issue and Strong Words Pick of the
Year
An Irish Times and The Times Summer Reading Pick
Shortlisted for the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award
'Beautifully written and emotionally devastating' Daily Mail
A beautiful and heart-breaking story set in South Africa where two
mothers - a century apart - must fight for their sons, unaware their
fates are inextricably linked.
Orange Free State, 1901. At the height of the Boer War, Sarah van der
Watt and her six-year-old son Fred can only watch as the British burn
their farm. The polite invaders cart them off to Bloemfontein
Concentration Camp promising you will be safe here.
Johannesburg, 2010. Sixteen-year-old Willem is an outsider who just
wants to be left alone with his Harry Potter books and Britney, his
beloved pug. Worried he's turning out soft, his Ma and her new
boyfriend send him to New Dawn Safari Camp, where they 'make men out of
boys.' Guaranteed.
The red earth of the veldt keeps countless secrets whether beaten by
the blistering sun or stretching out beneath starlit stillness. But no
secret can stay buried forever.
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