The No.3 Sunday Times bestselling 'masterpiece' (Andrew O'Hagan)
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE
'A fitting legacy left by a blazing talent' Observer
'A masterpiece' Andrew O'Hagan, Guardian
'Completely amazing' Lucy Mangan, Stylist
'A modern classic' Daily Mail
'Raw, compelling, wise and tender' Dolly Alderton
'Outstanding' Jenny Colgan, Spectator
'Razor-sharp, fearless and wonderful' Adam Kay
'Personal, political, and blazing with truth' Melissa Harrison
'Crammed with wit and intelligence' Financial Times
'Deeply tender and very funny' Kathy Burke
'Full of glinting pain, brilliant one liners and utter clarity' Suzanne Moore
'[Orr's] masterpiece' Evening Standard
'Intense and moving' Red
'Remarkable' Val McDermid, i
MOTHERWELL is a sharp, candid and often humorous memoir about the long shadow that can be cast when the core relationship in your life compromises every effort you make to become an individual. It is about what we inherit - the good and the very bad - and how a deeper understanding of the place and people you have come from can bring you towards redemption.
Searching, truthful, shocking (and timely) . . . with a reporter's skill, she shows the interior life of her people. In the present climate, this book should be given out on the NHS . . . a masterpiece - GUARDIAN
Sharply intelligent and utterly unsentimental, MOTHERWELL is a fitting legacy left by a blazing talent - OBSERVER
Raw, compelling, wise and tender
An outstanding memoir . . . The writing is powerful and muscular; the bitterness raw and furious . . . as a legacy, this book will stand at least as long as Ravenscraig - SPECTATOR
DEBORAH ORR was an award-winning journalist, whose work regularly appeared in the Guardian, the Independent, the Sunday Times and in many magazines including Vogue, Grazia and Marie Claire. She was a contributing editor to Another Magazine and was the first female editor of the Guardian's Weekend Magazine at the age of thirty. Deborah was a co-creator of 'Enquirer', a play commissioned by the National Theatre of Scotland, performed in London, Glasgow and Belfast, broadcast by Radio 4 and shortlisted for new play of the year in the Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland.