Before Now – Memoir of a Toerag by Moira McPartlin

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Before Now – Memoir of a Toerag by Moira McPartlin

Memories can mend more than broken bones

‘A brilliant depiction of family, the highs and lows of growing up, and a wonderful narrator who feels like a friend. I flew through it.’

Ross Sayers, author of Daisy on the Outer Line

In Praise of Moira McPartlin

‘Moira McPartlin’s prose is rich but unpretentious, her storytelling thumping…’

Helen Fitzgerald, author of The Cry, Viral, Worst Case Scenarios and others:

‘McPartlin’s world-building is second-to-none, her writing intelligent and immersive.’

Keith Gray, author of Ostrich Boys

‘If one of the characteristics of a good writer is to make you care, then Moira McPartlin does that in spades.’

Alistair Braidwood, Scots Whay Hae!

“Ah suppose there’s loads eh stories that ah could stert wi. Lucky escapes ah suppose ye could cry thum. The story eh how ma maw ruined oor lives by draggin us away fae ma da an aw the calamity that followed. But ah cannae tell that just yet.”

Sam and Gavin Smart’s worlds shatter when their maw rips them from the family home on Mother’s Day 1990.

Six years later, Gavin is confined to a room in his granny’s house after breaking a leg. All he wants is to pass his driving theory test and escape the room, instead he writes his memoir of the last six turbulent years. As the memoir progresses more than one person’s story emerges and Gavin realises things have to change.

This coming-of-age story, told entirely in the Fife dialect, is filled with comedy, high pranks and a heavy dose of unintended pathos.

Moira McPartlin’s Before Now exposes the challenges faced by a single parent family in a small mining community in the wake of mass pit closures.