Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em ; Memoirs of a Not so Dutiful Daughter by Jenni Murray (Bantam, [Pounds]14.99) Katie Law

Summary

---

IT'S JULY 2006, and the voice of Woman's Hour is crying because her mother, Win, in a hospital bed and dying slowly of Parkinson's disease, has told Jenni she is beautiful. "It is the first time she has ever paid me an unconditional compliment. I am 56 years old. I weep all the way home," writes Jenni. By the end of the year Win is dead and within another six months, Jenni's father, Alvin, has also died, from a combination of lung cancer and grief. Jenni, meanwhile, has discovered a lump in her breast which turns out to be a malignant tumour that requires a mastectomy and radical chemotherapy.

So begins Jenni's account of her hellish year, which she writes in monthly chunks, chronicling events as they happen and interweaving them with her own life story, largely in an attempt to understand and lay to rest her deep antagonism towards her mother.

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em ; Memoirs of a Not so Dutiful Daughter by Jenni Murray (Bantam, [Pounds]14.99) Katie Law

Jennifer Bailey was the only daughter of an electrician and a reluctant housewife, who grew up in an old-fa...

See the full content of this document

---