Handstands In The Dark: A True Story of Growing Up and Survival - Softcover

Godley, Janey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0091908779 ISBN 13: 9780091908775

Publisher: Ebury Press, 2006

Synopsis

Brought up amid near-Dickensian squalour in the tough East End of Glasgow and sexually abused by her uncle, Janey married into a Glasgow criminal family as a teenager, then found herself having to cope with the murder of her mother, violence, religious sectarianism, abject poverty and a frightening family of in-laws.

First-hand, Janey saw the gangland violence and met extraordinary characters within an enclosed and seldom-revealed Glasgow underworld - from the grim and far-from-Swinging 60s, to the discos of the 70s, to the tidal wave of heroin addiction which swept through and engulfed Glasgow's East End during the 1980s.

This evocative, intimate and moving portrayal of a woman forced to fight every day for her family's future will strike a chord with anyone who has ever struggled against adversity.

About this title

About the Author

Janey Godley is an award-winning comedian from Glasgow and something very different on the comedy circuit. She has performed stand-up all over the world and had her first play performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 2003. This is her first book.

From the Back Cover

'I liked doing handstands. Maybe my secrets and sore bits would
disappear if I stayed like this. Sometimes I would only talk upside-down or
in a secret code only I knew, and scoop water from puddles coz I was
thirsty but too scared to go home and face what was there.'

Janey and her family live in the tough East End of Glasgow. Her father is
hard-working but hard-drinking andf her depressive mother struggles to
cope. And from an early age Janey is being sexually abused by her uncle.

When her parents separate, she has to witness her mother's abuse by a
violent new boyfriend. Then, when still a teenager, Janey marries the son
of a notorious gangster and is suddenly immersed in a dangerous and insular
Glasgow underworld.

This is the true story of one girl's everyday fight for her family's future
that will strike a chord with anyone who has ever struggled against
adversity.

'Storytelling genius' London Evening Standard;

'Savage' Guardian;

'Gripping stuff' OK!

From the Inside Flap

'Her enthusiasm and sheer optimism have helped her survive
life's cruellest blows where others might have crumbled... set to be a
bestseller' (Sun)



'A true one-off... her ballsy tales of gangsters, violence and abuse are
absolutely riveting... it will make Angela's Ashes seem like The Famous
Five' (London Evening Standard)



'Remarkably engaging and fluently written... makes the McCourt family look
like the Von Trapps' (Observer)



'Exhilarating, uplifting and often extremely funny... a testament to the
extraordinary endurance of the human spirit' (Guardian)



'Not just courageous but mouthy and irrepressibly funny' (Scotsman)



'A fantastic book. You will keep turning those pages. You do cry and you
laugh and it's raw. No punches are pulled... but it's absolutely not a
"poor me" book' (Janice Forsyth, BBC Radio Scotland)



'Genuinely compelling' (Glasgow Herald)



'Vividly evokied' (Choice)



'A natural storyteller... it's hard to imagine how she ever kept the secret
that she did' (Daily Record)



'A life that would try the patience of a saint... it's doubtful you'll be
able to choke back the tears' (Metro)

Edition details

• Publisher: Ebury Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0091908779
• ISBN 13: 9780091908775
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416