VGC.Headline Book publishing,2004.First edition-first printing(10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1).Black hardback(silver lettering to the spine,small nick on the edge of the cover) with Dj(small creases and nicks on the edges of the Dj cover),both in VGC.Illustrated.Nice and clean pages with a couple ink marks on the outer edges,some creases on the edges of the pages,small pencil mark impression on the edge of the first blank page of the book.The book is in VGC with light shelf wear.412pp including Family Tree,glossary.Price un-clipped.First edition. This is another paragraph Product Description: When seventy-year-old Maura Murphy discovered she had cancer, she left her husband of fifty years and started writing her memoirs. Born 'chronically ugly and 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 and fought to keep together a family ravaged by poverty and alcohol. The voice of a silent generation of an immigrant-Irish underclass, Maura Murphy's tough and remarkable life is a compellingly written account of struggle and survival like no other. With all the immediacy and impact of Frank McCourt's prize-winning Angela's Ashes, Maura's voice is feisty, funny and fearless. And she needed to be all those things to survive an extraordinary series of privations and abuses. Her story is compelling and upbeat despite everything.