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Single Mother on the Verge
Maria is twenty-nine years old. She is a single mother and lives on a council estate in Manchester. She's also a chronic day-dreamer. One day she'd like to marry a beautiful man with a huge income to look after her and Jack, her nine-year-old son.
The only problem is that her current boyfriend, Rhodri, a chickpea-loving vegan eco-warrior, has turned his back on career ladders. Neither does he believe in monogamy. And so Maria finds herself unexpectedly juggling one, two, three lovers . . .
When Damien, Jack's abusive father, who threatened more times than Maria cares to remember to kill her makes an unwelcome reappearance, she gets a wake-up call. Will Maria find a wonderful father figure for Jack by the time she turns thirty?
A surprisingly humorous memoir with heartbreaking and unexpected moments, Single Mother on the Verge is a seductive and extremely touching read.
- GenresFiction
307 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2009
15 people want to read
About the author
Maria Roberts
1 book5 followersMy name is Maria Roberts and I'm the author of Single Mother on the Verge, a book that started life as a blog and was published by Penguin in 2009.
'Hmm,' you wonder, 'so it was a blog that was turned into a book? I have a blog that'd make a great book.' Well yes, that's sort of the truth. It was a blog that became a book but prior to this I'd completed an MA in novel writing, had a few short stories published and written some sketchy plays. It wasn't as happenstance as it first appears but it was coincidental.
What happened was this:
Back in 2007 I was waiting in line for coffee at an art gallery in Liverpool next to Joel Rickett from the Bookseller (no, I'd never met him before) and he mentioned something about a blog that was being turned into a book.
I said: 'What's a blog?', didn't quite find out, ordered some biscuits and that was it.
When I went home I looked up 'blog' on the Internet.
'Ha,' I said to myself, 'I've no freaking idea what this blogging business is but I'm going to do it anyway.'
Let me be honest here: I was/am freaking rubbish at this lark. People would send me badges to put on my blog and I'd reply, 'I don't know what to do, help!'
But I blogged anyway and before I knew it, I had a small but appreciative audience. I even won an award at Manchester Literature Festival.
In early December, I was well and truly on my arse. It was a few weeks before Christmas and I was broke, freshly dumped and about to be made redundant. So I emailed an agent with an idea, ten minutes later he called, a few days later I'd written a proposal and within a fortnight the book was sold to Penguin.
It was that fast.
And yes, it did change my life. I moved off the council estate, stopped having an open relationship with an eco-warrior, ditched the lovers... and took the very sensible step of moving into a quasi-single parent communal household in London.
To conclude: You can do it, whatever that may be.
'Hmm,' you wonder, 'so it was a blog that was turned into a book? I have a blog that'd make a great book.' Well yes, that's sort of the truth. It was a blog that became a book but prior to this I'd completed an MA in novel writing, had a few short stories published and written some sketchy plays. It wasn't as happenstance as it first appears but it was coincidental.
What happened was this:
Back in 2007 I was waiting in line for coffee at an art gallery in Liverpool next to Joel Rickett from the Bookseller (no, I'd never met him before) and he mentioned something about a blog that was being turned into a book.
I said: 'What's a blog?', didn't quite find out, ordered some biscuits and that was it.
When I went home I looked up 'blog' on the Internet.
'Ha,' I said to myself, 'I've no freaking idea what this blogging business is but I'm going to do it anyway.'
Let me be honest here: I was/am freaking rubbish at this lark. People would send me badges to put on my blog and I'd reply, 'I don't know what to do, help!'
But I blogged anyway and before I knew it, I had a small but appreciative audience. I even won an award at Manchester Literature Festival.
In early December, I was well and truly on my arse. It was a few weeks before Christmas and I was broke, freshly dumped and about to be made redundant. So I emailed an agent with an idea, ten minutes later he called, a few days later I'd written a proposal and within a fortnight the book was sold to Penguin.
It was that fast.
And yes, it did change my life. I moved off the council estate, stopped having an open relationship with an eco-warrior, ditched the lovers... and took the very sensible step of moving into a quasi-single parent communal household in London.
To conclude: You can do it, whatever that may be.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 16, 2023
What did I just read?
The woman is a single mother in a council estate of Manchester but own her house there?
It seems to be a bit autobiographical, but seriously, there is nothing I could relate to (despite being a single mother myself).
I guess everyone's situation is different, and I can understand that, but yes. I couldn't care less about that Rhodri boyfriend. And the other guys she was more or less having adult fun with.
Yuck. Waste of time. I still finished it, thought.
The woman is a single mother in a council estate of Manchester but own her house there?
It seems to be a bit autobiographical, but seriously, there is nothing I could relate to (despite being a single mother myself).
I guess everyone's situation is different, and I can understand that, but yes. I couldn't care less about that Rhodri boyfriend. And the other guys she was more or less having adult fun with.
Yuck. Waste of time. I still finished it, thought.
July 25, 2017
Follow Maria as she navigates her way through a complex life - an eco warrior boyfriend, a love triangle (or maybe even square), a job under threat, and a young son whose father was once violent, now estranged. This is a unique, hilarious, fascinating memoir of a young woman trying to work out what she wants to keep hold of, and what she should let go as she hits 30. Highly recommended!
April 16, 2025
DNF’d at 100 pages to go, found main character irritating and very indecisive
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews