AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK AND ON KINDLE
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.
Reviews
“A funny and moving memoir inspired by her award-winning blog, Single Mother on the Verge recounts the adventures of Maria Roberts as a young single parent with a GSOH seeking romance – and finding instead a vegan eco-warrior, an open relationship, and a stolen Viagra tablet in a ladies loo. You feel for her and her son, you will her to make the right decisions and you’re with her all the way. Don’t let the pastel cover fool you – the writing is excellent and strikingly honest, not least when Maria bravely depicts the reality of domestic violence. A unique book with a charming cast of characters. Highly recommended!” – Marie Claire
“Move over, Bridget Jones. The next best-selling diary is being penned by a single mum. Until now, Maria Roberts’s hilarious and moving account Single Mother On The Verge has been an anonymous online blog. But now the journal has won her a five-figure book deal with Penguin. Pitched as “Jane Eyre meets Shameless”, the 29-year-old’s accounts of life as a single mum on a Manchester council estate are set to prove a hit with women everywhere.” – The Mirror
“Maria’s strong spirit is evident in bucket-loads… her personality shines through as fun-loving, determined and easy to relate to, making her the down-to-earth heroine of her own story.” – Essential Writers
“Reads like a hilarious and moving tale of a turbulent fictional life.” – The Irish News
“Written with the same warmth, insight and honesty as her blog… Single Mother is an engaging story that combines tragedy and comedy to compelling, hilarious and heartfelt effect.” – The Big Issue in the North
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THE HEATWAVE
SUMMER CAME LAST SPRING. NOW ALL THAT COMES FROM THE TAPS IS DIRT.
It’s the summer that never ends. The UK is enjoying the longest heatwave on record, until a climate change aberration sends the country to the brink of self-destruction.
As England heads into a drought, standpipes are installed in the streets and unbeatable fires tear across the country placing the fire service and the army in peril, road accidents bring the hospital services to a halt, and then the water runs out.
On an estate in Manchester, a young mother and Jenny her teenage daughter are poised to do whatever they can to survive. But with the nation, city and small town’s infrastructure under duress, communities in crisis, London underwater, and communication blackouts, riots and hijacking become the norm.
When the death toll rises, and food sources run out, everyone is easy prey.
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PHOBIC
(SHORT STORY) – BY THE RIVER
A collection of short stories by Comma Press, featuring
Where does fear lurk in 21st century life? In a technological age hardwired to keep information flowing and the unknown at bay, what irrationalities still linger for horror writers to tap into? This anthology – the first in a new series from Comma – offers 15 very different responses to the question. From ancient curses kept alive in internet chat-rooms to malevolent children’s TV characters acquiring lives of their own, Phobic shines a torch into the unlit areas of the modern subconscious and suggests the more we know, the more we realise how worried we really should be.
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BRACKET: A NEW GENERATION IN FICTION
SHORT STORY: WHEN SILENCE IS THE ONLY THING WE LEAVE BEHIND
Bracket brings together 20 of the country’s most promising, previously unpublished writers. From the cliffs of Flamborough Head to high rise, inner city madness; from lost loves to the last days of civilisation – the settings and scenarios in these stories captivate and unsettle in equal measure, all the time striving for that most unlikely modern thing, intimacy.
maria-roberts.com 