Mother's Ruin

· Hachette UK
5.0
6 reviews
eBook
181
Pages
Eligible
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About this eBook

Nicola Barry grew up in well-to-do Murrayfield, Edinburgh. Her father was a hopsital consultant, her mother was medically trained, her brothers boarders at public school. But behind the closed doors of their imposing family home, her mother was drinking herself to death. A beautiful, quirky woman, this is the story of how Monica Barry became a prisoner to alcohol and a prisoner in her own home, her addiction slowly sucking the life out of her. And how - with her father at work, and her brothers away at school - Nicola spent a lot of her childhood as her mother's unofficial carer: hauling her from the bath when she was too drunk to function and running errands to buy her booze.


Full of harrowing incidents, and warmed by a touching, bleak humour, this is the powerful story of how a mother drank herself to death and how alcohol destroyed a family. And of how Nicola battled with her own alcoholism but, determined to throw off her mother's legacy, came through - a survivor.

Ratings and reviews

5.0
6 reviews
balajoji narreddy
14 July 2020
Thank you for sending me the same thing 💗💖💗😊
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Robyn Warren
19 September 2013
Love this book have read it like a billion times
1 person found this review helpful
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About the author

Nicola Barry is a feature writer and columnist, currently with the Sunday Express and Press and Journal. She also worked at the Edinburgh Evening News for five years and the Scotsman. She is a recent graduate of the celebrated MPhil course in Creative Writing at Glasgow University and is currently studying for a PhD in the same field. She has won various press awards, mainly for her writing on social issues and for her columns. She lives with her partner and dog in Edinburgh.

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