Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?: hilarious, tender, absurd, delightful and charming Nina Stibbe

Seamas O'Reilly

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THE IRISH TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER

AN POST BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR

'Gorgeous' Pandora Sykes

'A rare and beautiful book' Marian Keyes'Tender, sad and side-splittingly funny' Annie MacManus

'A delight' Dara O Briain

Seamas O'Reilly's mother died when he was five, leaving him, his ten brothers and sisters and their beloved father in their sprawling bungalow in rural Derry. It was the 1990s; the Troubles were a background rumble (most of the time), and Seamas at that point was more preoccupied with dinosaurs, Star Wars and the actual location of heaven than the political climate.

Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? is a book about a family of argumentative, loud, musical, sarcastic, grief-stricken siblings, shepherded into adulthood by a man whose foibles and reticence were matched only by his love for his children and his determination that they would flourish. It is the moving, often amusing and completely unsentimental story of a boy growing up in a family bonded by love, loss and fairly relentless mockery.

'A heartfelt tribute to an alarmingly large family held together by a quietly heroic father' Arthur Mathews, co-creator of Father Ted and Toast of London

'Not only hilarious, tender, absurd, delightful and charming, but written with such skill as to render it unforgettable' Nina Stibbe

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Praise for Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?: hilarious, tender, absurd, delightful and charming Nina Stibbe

  • I cannot stress enough how much I love this funny, adorable memoir. Not only hilarious, tender, absurd, delightful and charming, but written with such skill as to render it unforgettable. I now can't wait to see the TV series and/or to become Seamas's best friendGrotesquely funnyTender, sad and side-splittingly funny, this is the unforgettable story of how a boy with ten siblings and no mother grew into a man. It's a love letter to Northern Ireland and all the children, dogs, priests and struggling parents that live there. I adored itAn almost improbable true story of an Irish man bringing up eleven (yes, eleven) children on his own, after his wife dies. Seamas is the ninth of these "half-orphans" and he writes about his childhood and grief with such pathos and wit - even the chapter on his father's love of dogs is exquisite. A gorgeous memoirI enjoyed this immensely. I laughed a lot (often out loud). A heartfelt tribute to an alarmingly large family held together by a quietly heroic father

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Seamas O'Reilly

Seamas O'Reilly

SA AMAS O'REILLY is a writer and author who has worked as a columnist for the Observer, the Irish Times and the Irish Examiner. He is Features Editor of London satirical magazine, The Fence and his writing has appeared in The Guardian, the New Statesman and the New York Times. His memoir Did Ye Hear Mammy Died topped the Irish Times Bestseller List for seven weeks, and won Best Biography at the 2021 Irish Book Awards. SA amas currently lives in Walthamstow,

London with his family.

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