Before Now: Memoir of a Toerag

by Moira McPartlin

“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.

168 pages, Paperback

Expected publication May 31, 2121

About the author

Moira McPartlin made a big impact with The Incomers, her debut novel set in Fife. It was shortlisted for the Saltire Society First Book of the Year Award and was a critical success.
Her speculative fiction Sun Song Trilogy novels, Ways of the Doomed, Wants of the Silent and Star of Hope set in 2089, reflect many issues we are living with today.
In September 2019 her short play A Handful Of Glaur was included as part of the UNESCO Cities of Literature Short Play Festival in New Zealand and in 2020 she will take up a writing fellowship at Hawthornden Castle. She is also a prolific writer of short stories and poetry and has been published in a variety of literary magazines.
Her new novel Before Now: Memoir of a Toerag was published in May 2021.
She lives in Stirling.

Reviews

[Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Charlie Gracie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moira McPartlin’s Before Now is a cracker of a novel. Gavin, the toerag of subtitle, is an engaging, warm character.

Stuck in bed following an accident, Gavin is encouraged by his mother, his maw, to write down the stories he tells about his life. These stories weave in and out of accounts of his slow recovery and are populated with characters from his village in Fife, a place blighted by the aftermath of Thatcher’s economic and political changes. The book, written in the Fife dialect, is bounded by these changes, the impact of pit closures on individuals, families and communities, and by his maw, a woman who refuses to accept that things need to stay as they are.

This is a deeply human book, told with Moira McPartlin’s typical mix of humour and sharp insight. I loved the way hope grows slowly and the surprising impact that telling his own story has on Gavin’s life.

[Carol McKay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gavin is a lively and likeable 17 year old who is almost immobilised while he's recovering from a nasty accident. His mum has given him a pen and notebook and told him to pass some of his time jotting down stories of some of the japes he and his brother got up to. Through these stories, by turn laugh-out-loud funny and close to heart-breaking, we learn what it’s like to be a ‘daft laddie’ growing up in a small town devastated by the collapse of the coalmining industry in the 1990s. Whether he’s telling us about how they welcomed Tilly the dug into their lives, or the many times his long-suffering mother got called to the school about her two boys’ bad behaviour, or meeting many other characters, we get to know the real Gavin, who loves his mum and even his brother, and wants to move forward and live a good life.

I reviewed Before Now and had a chat with author Moira on my blog. Read it to gain some great insights into how the novel came about! Here's the link http://carolmckay.blogspot.com/2021/0...

[Pauline Connolly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn’t put this book down. The characters and the setting just jumped off the page for me with the innate wit of the Fife dialect, where insults are often meant as terms of endearment. Ringing with truth, the family’s anecdotes drew laughter and sobs, while the theme of self-improvement and quiet ambition in the face of stubborn and traditionally accepted subordinate female roles hit home with a bang. I loved it!

[Ian McCabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moira Mcpartlin's Before Now (Memoir of a Toerag) is a lively and lovable addition to the body of modern Scottish fiction written in Scots. The flowing Fife dialect of the narrative subtly creates the character of its protagonist Gavin Smart, while the deceptive simplicity of his expression reveals a complex, caring and often troubled personality. The anecdotes and incidents recalled have been carefully chosen and ordered, not only through the device of Gav's listing, but through the craft of the author herself. The overarching device of an entrapped narrator obliged to tell his tale is as old as The Arabian Nights, but none the less effective for that. The individual 'stories' are in turn funny, frightening, and sad, but they all have a core of real lived experience. I am sure I am not alone in empathising with both Gavin and Lily, his long-suffering mother. Readers of both Ms Mcpartlin's Young Adult fiction and older audiences will warm to this book as much as I did. The novel's lack of pretention adds to its charm, and indeed to its impact. It creates a realistic picture of life in West Fife that reminded me of a more endearing version of Gordon Legge's Grangemouth at a similar historical period.
Nit-picking criticism might focus on the improbability of the final dénouement, and a failure to examine the effects of the miners strike on a village dependent on the pit, but such minor infelicities do not detract from the overall achievement of the author. This is Ms Mcpartlin's best work to date and comes highly recommended. 9/10

[Liz Moffat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so humorous yet sad at the same time. I really loved Gavin, a funny and charismatic character. I could have followed his antics for a good few more chapters. Gavin has had an accident so is laid up at his Granny Annie’s spare bedroom for the next few months. Gavin’s mum works away a lot but on one visit leaves him a notebook and pen to help his English in order to pass his theory test. She reckons he has a story or two to tell. So the book is a combination of Gavin’s tales of derring-do in the past and real time working on his recovery. The combination works well and the story flowed. I couldn’t put it down and the characters stayed in my mind when I wasn’t reading. I didn’t want it to end.

[Caroline Deacon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a good book. Written entirely in the Fife dialect, that might seem off putting for some, but the voice grabs you and carries you along, and I actually found it quicker to get into than other books written in Scots dialect such as Buddha Da by Anne Donovan (which I also enjoyed and which this book reminds me of in some ways).
Gavin is a great protagonist and even though he is a Toerag, he is extremely likeable, and any parent will probably see recognisable elements of exuberance taken to extremes.

[Colin Baird · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book from beginning to end. It is about Gavin, poorly educated, badly behaved: a toerag. Following an accident he is encouraged to spend his time by writing about his life experiences. His writing is raw and in Scottish Fife dialect and, like Trainspotting, takes a few pages to get into. The stories are varied, some full of pathos, most are hilarious, all entertaining and evocative of small village life and characters. The stories evolve and show the challenges that were faced by Gavin and his family in growing up with meagre means and little support. The mother is an especially strong character who will not be beaten.
At the end we learn if there is any hope for Gavin. Will he remain a toerag or will he escape from his past?

[Liane Mc · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Main character Gavin is a warm and funny teenager who is stuck inside while his broken leg heals. Unable to get up to his usual hijinks, he begins writing down his stories and, through his reflections, finds his own unique voice. There’s also some tender moments and tense bits that perfectly balance out this warm-hearted and ultimately uplifting book. I’d recommend it to everyone!

[Christopher Gilmour · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was pretty neat the way the convalescence is used as a framing device for the various stories. Occasionally the flow of time was difficult to figure out, and the ending came out of the blue (pun in tended). But I enjoyed it.