Moses

by Susan Barrett

‘Having it all’ in the Swinging Sixties, this novel describes how a single mother manages to keep her baby and her career in the pre-pill Sixties.
‘One of the wittiest novels I have read recently,’ Derek Stanford, Scotsman

Susan Barrett's first novel, Jam Today, much acclaimed and highly successful, had a zany style all its own. Moses is in the same genre, again an offbeat girl's story or, rather, baby's story. For Moses, born on holiday, is but a few weeks old and lives in a large rush basket covered by a striped bathing towel. He goes to work with Jo, who wants to keep her job as an advertising copywriter as well as her baby. Gradually the presence of an extra employee in the copy department is discovered. As the circle of conspirators widens, it becomes more and more difficult to keep the baby secret. This leads to some inspired countermeasures and laugh-out-loud moments. This entertaining and thought-provoking story describes a woman's dilemma which is as topical today as it was in the 60s. Originally published in hardback by Michael Joseph, in paperback by Sphere, now made available as an ebook by WritersReadersDirect.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published December 18, 2011

About the author

SUSAN BARRETT spent her childhood in Devon and at school in Bath. She worked as a copywriter in London before leaving to live in Greece where she began writing fiction. She has had seven novels published in hardback and paperback in UK and USA. Other work includes travel writing, television drama, and wildlife and children’s books illustrated by her husband Peter. In the 1990s she trained as a humanistic counsellor and gestalt psychotherapist. After some years running a private practice, she returned to fiction writing by doing an MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa. She has mentored new writers, held creative writing workshops at home, and has recently published two novels and a non-fiction work with CreateSpace, available as paperbacks on Amazon.