In this second volume of Martha Long's memoirs, aged 13, Martha is rescued by the courts from the clutches of her evil stepfather, Jackser and her feckless mother, Sally. After numerous arrests for shoplifting, a judge rules that she is to be sent to a convent school with the instruction that she is to get an education.

Aged thirteen, Martha is rescued by the courts from the clutches of her evil stepfather, Jackser, and her feckless mother, Sally. After numerous arrests for shoplifting, a judge rules that she is to be sent to a convent school with the instruction that she is to get an education. Her initial relief at escaping the abuse and neglect she suffered at home is, however, short-lived, as she soon realises that there are many forms of cruelty in this life. As she says, 'You can have a full belly, but your heart can be very empty.' Ostracised by the other children for being a 'street kid' and put to back-breaking work by the nuns, she leads a lonely existence, her only joy coming from the books she devours and her mischievous sense of humour. Desperate for love and a little place where she feels she belongs, despite all that she has suffered Martha retains her compassion for others and still continues to hope for a brighter future when she will be free to make her own way in life.

A memoir by American former actress and singer Jennette McCurdy about her career as a child actress and her difficult relationship with her abusive mother who died in 2013

Martha is now in her thirties. She has long shaken off the shackles of Jackser and her mother. Following a shotgun wedding at 18, she was separated and a single mother by 22. Now her daughter has left home to continue her studies in England and Martha is alone, in bad health, lonely and vulnerable.

The next installment of the Ma books—all bestsellers in Ireland and the UK—brings readers on the journey of Martha's first months of freedom in Dublin after leaving the convent where she spent her early adolescence. In the latest chapter of Martha Long's autobiographical series, Martha is for the first time on her own: discharged from the convent, she's finally 16, the age she'd long dreamed of as the doorway to her freedom from the whims of cruel adults. "Life is a bowl of cherries!" she reasons as she sets out to blend in with the middle classes and find love, acceptance, and respect therein. But this is also Dublin in the 1960s, where class aspirations ain't so easy for the likes of Martha. As one job and bedsit is found (and lost), another soon comes along with its own foibles and dangers . . . but with her signature spirit and true grit, Martha makes the best of every situation and manages to offer compassion even to the most downtrodden of characters who cross her path. Chance meetings with old friends from the convent and a fortuitous (yet brief) reunion with two of her brothers remind Martha of all she has experienced (and survived) and serves as the impetus for her to keep going . . . even when homelessness is all but certain. As with her previous books, Ma, It's a Cold Aul Night an I'm Lookin for a Bed has us cheering for Martha. This time she doesn't have any nuns or abusive stepfathers preventing her from making progress . . . but life does still get in the way, and that bowl of cherries sometimes proves to be a bit more sour than Martha would hope.

On hearing that Jackser, her childhood abuser, is seriously ill, Martha is elated, thinking that finally she will be able to watch him suffer. But in the hospital she sees a frightened, lonely old man and realises with a shock that he seems to regret his earlier actions. During her vigil, she is joined by Charlie, her little brother, then her ma and some of her other siblings. But as she sits with Jackser during his dying days, other memories come back to Martha - fleeting moments of concern and kindness, and a sense of closeness as he recalls his own tormented past in one of Ireland's industrial schools.

Born a bastard to a teenage mother in the slums of 1950's Dublin, Martha grew up in squalid, freezing tenements, clothed in rags and forced to beg for food. Here she tells the story of her early life and recreates a lost era in which the shadow of the Catholic Church loomed large and if you didn't work, you didn't eat.

A charming ne’er-do-well returns to his haunted Irish hometown to uncover the truth about his mother in this “supernaturally skilled debut” (Vanity Fair) and turns the town—and his life—upside down. Having been abandoned at an orphanage as a baby, Mahony assumed all his life that his mother wanted nothing to do with him. That is, until one night in 1976 while drinking a pint at a Dublin pub, he receives an anonymous note implying that she may have been forced to give him up. Determined to find out what really happened, Mahony embarks on a pilgrimage back to his hometown, the rural village of Mulderrig. Neither he nor Mulderrig can possibly prepare for what’s in store… From the moment he arrives, Mahony’s presence completely changes the village. Women fall all over themselves. The real and the fantastic are blurred. Chatty ghosts rise from their graves with secrets to tell, and local preacher Father Quinn will do anything to get rid of the slippery young man who is threatening the moral purity of his parish. A spectacular new addition to the grand Irish storytelling tradition, Himself “is a darkly comic tale of murder, intrigue, haunting and illegitimacy…wickedly funny” (Daily Express).

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 'Heart-breaking, heart-warming, and hilarious: a glorious debut' Ruth Hogan 'Strong and taut' Anne Griffin 'Fresh, thoughtful and original' Irish Times 'I really enjoyed this, Eleanor is a lovely writer' Sheila O'Flanagan Meet the Augustts: Ma and Da, Jenny and Jacob, and their no-nonsense Granny Mae-Anne. Complicated as only families can be, they are bound together by their love for one another, and for a piping hot bag of chips. When misfortune strikes and Granny moves in, they learn to understand each other anew through new stories and old memories. Sometimes, in a family as complicated as the Augustts, it's not always what is spoken that makes the most sense. M for Mammy is an uplifting story about the unique comfort of home, the language we can find when the words aren't there, and the power of a family to heal itself. 'A heartfelt debut about love, understanding and the complicated ties of family' Prima 'Lovely, sharp, compassionate, well-observed writing' Felicity Hayes-McCoy 'Channelling the warm heart and good cheer of Marian Keyes . . . very amusing' Irish Independent 'Exuberant. A brilliant, bubbly new voice' Irish Examiner 'A gloriously funny, bittersweet debut' Ireland of the Welcomes

A chilling, eye-opening story of marriage and attempted murder, revealing the truth about a case that made headlines around the world. On Easter Sunday 2015, experienced skydiver Victoria Cilliers undertook a parachute jump, a gift from her husband, British army sergeant Emile Cilliers. Her parachutes failed to open and she plummeted 4,000 feet to the ground, sustaining life-threatening injuries. Miraculously, she survived. Then the police arrived at her door. Someone had tampered with her parachute and they suspected Emile. In I Survived Victoria describes how she fell for Emile, and how the charming man she thought she knew gradually revealed a darker side, chipping away at her self-worth until she found it impossible to sift truth from lies. Can she really believe that her husband – the father of their two young children – tried to kill her? As more shocking revelations come to light, and she has to face his trial and relentless media scrutiny, she struggles to come to terms with the past. Even a guilty verdict does not free her because Emile is not ready to let her go . . . Powerful and honest, I Survived is the story of a woman who was put through hell and yet found the strength to forge a new life for herself and her children.