Listen free for 30 days
-
Motherwell
- A Girlhood
- Narrated by: Gabriel Quigley
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Categories: Biographies & Memoirs
People who bought this also bought...
-
Mayflies
- By: Andrew O'Hagan
- Narrated by: Andrew O'Hagan
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone has a Tully Dawson: the friend who defines your life. In the summer of 1986, in a small Scottish town, James and Tully ignite a brilliant friendship based on music, films and the rebel spirit. With school over and the locked world of their fathers before them, they rush towards the climax of their youth: a magical weekend in Manchester, the epicentre of everything that inspires them in working-class Britain. There, against the greatest soundtrack ever recorded, a vow is made: to go at life differently. Thirty years on, half a life away, the phone rings. Tully has news.
-
-
Oh my word
- By Diane P. on 03-12-20
-
Shuggie Bain
- By: Douglas Stuart
- Narrated by: Angus King
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1981. Glasgow is dying and good families must grift to survive. Agnes Bain has always expected more from life. She dreams of greater things: a house with its own front door and a life bought and paid for outright (like her perfect, but false, teeth). But Agnes is abandoned by her philandering husband, and soon she and her three children find themselves trapped in a decimated mining town. As she descends deeper into drink, the children try their best to save her, yet one by one they must abandon her to save themselves. It is her son Shuggie who holds out hope the longest.
-
-
Wonderful read
- By Moodyminx on 13-05-20
-
Living Better
- How I Learned to Survive Depression
- By: Alastair Campbell
- Narrated by: Alastair Campbell, Fiona Millar
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Living Better is Alastair Campbell's honest, moving and life-affirming account of his lifelong struggle with depression. It is an autobiographical, psychological and psychiatric study, which explores his own childhood, family and other relationships and examines the impact of his professional and political life on himself and those around him. But it also lays bare his relentless quest to understand depression not just through his own life but through different treatments.
-
-
Excellent Read.
- By Anonymous User on 22-10-20
-
Another Planet
- A Teenager in Suburbia
- By: Tracey Thorn
- Narrated by: Tracey Thorn
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a 1970s commuter town, Tracey Thorn's teenage life was forged from what failed to happen. Her diaries were packed with entries about not buying things, not going to the disco, the school coach not arriving. Before she was a best-selling musician and writer, Tracey Thorn was a typical teenager: bored and cynical, despairing of her aspirational parents. Her only comfort came from house parties, Meaningful Conversations and the female pop icons who hinted at a new kind of living.
-
-
Boring
- By Colin on 28-07-20
-
Maggie & Me
- By: Damian Barr
- Narrated by: Damian Barr
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 12 October 1984. An IRA bomb blows apart the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Miraculously, Margaret Thatcher survives. In small-town Scotland, eight-year-old Damian Barr watches in horror as his mum rips her wedding ring off and packs their bags. He knows he, too, must survive. Damian, his sister and his Catholic mum move in with her sinister new boyfriend while his Protestant dad shacks up with the glamorous Mary the Canary. Divided by sectarian suspicion, the community is held together by the sprawling Ravenscraig Steelworks.
-
-
My Book Of The Summer
- By European Reader on 15-09-14
-
House of Glass
- The Story and Secrets of a 20th-Century Jewish Family
- By: Hadley Freeman
- Narrated by: Hadley Freeman
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After her grandmother died, Hadley Freeman travelled to her apartment to try and make sense of a woman she’d never really known. Sala Glass was a European expat in America – defiantly clinging to her French influences, famously reserved, fashionable to the end – yet to Hadley much of her life remained a mystery. Sala’s experience of surviving one of the most tumultuous periods in modern history was never spoken about.
-
-
epic
- By janey on 21-05-20
-
Mayflies
- By: Andrew O'Hagan
- Narrated by: Andrew O'Hagan
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone has a Tully Dawson: the friend who defines your life. In the summer of 1986, in a small Scottish town, James and Tully ignite a brilliant friendship based on music, films and the rebel spirit. With school over and the locked world of their fathers before them, they rush towards the climax of their youth: a magical weekend in Manchester, the epicentre of everything that inspires them in working-class Britain. There, against the greatest soundtrack ever recorded, a vow is made: to go at life differently. Thirty years on, half a life away, the phone rings. Tully has news.
-
-
Oh my word
- By Diane P. on 03-12-20
-
Shuggie Bain
- By: Douglas Stuart
- Narrated by: Angus King
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1981. Glasgow is dying and good families must grift to survive. Agnes Bain has always expected more from life. She dreams of greater things: a house with its own front door and a life bought and paid for outright (like her perfect, but false, teeth). But Agnes is abandoned by her philandering husband, and soon she and her three children find themselves trapped in a decimated mining town. As she descends deeper into drink, the children try their best to save her, yet one by one they must abandon her to save themselves. It is her son Shuggie who holds out hope the longest.
-
-
Wonderful read
- By Moodyminx on 13-05-20
-
Living Better
- How I Learned to Survive Depression
- By: Alastair Campbell
- Narrated by: Alastair Campbell, Fiona Millar
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Living Better is Alastair Campbell's honest, moving and life-affirming account of his lifelong struggle with depression. It is an autobiographical, psychological and psychiatric study, which explores his own childhood, family and other relationships and examines the impact of his professional and political life on himself and those around him. But it also lays bare his relentless quest to understand depression not just through his own life but through different treatments.
-
-
Excellent Read.
- By Anonymous User on 22-10-20
-
Another Planet
- A Teenager in Suburbia
- By: Tracey Thorn
- Narrated by: Tracey Thorn
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a 1970s commuter town, Tracey Thorn's teenage life was forged from what failed to happen. Her diaries were packed with entries about not buying things, not going to the disco, the school coach not arriving. Before she was a best-selling musician and writer, Tracey Thorn was a typical teenager: bored and cynical, despairing of her aspirational parents. Her only comfort came from house parties, Meaningful Conversations and the female pop icons who hinted at a new kind of living.
-
-
Boring
- By Colin on 28-07-20
-
Maggie & Me
- By: Damian Barr
- Narrated by: Damian Barr
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 12 October 1984. An IRA bomb blows apart the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Miraculously, Margaret Thatcher survives. In small-town Scotland, eight-year-old Damian Barr watches in horror as his mum rips her wedding ring off and packs their bags. He knows he, too, must survive. Damian, his sister and his Catholic mum move in with her sinister new boyfriend while his Protestant dad shacks up with the glamorous Mary the Canary. Divided by sectarian suspicion, the community is held together by the sprawling Ravenscraig Steelworks.
-
-
My Book Of The Summer
- By European Reader on 15-09-14
-
House of Glass
- The Story and Secrets of a 20th-Century Jewish Family
- By: Hadley Freeman
- Narrated by: Hadley Freeman
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After her grandmother died, Hadley Freeman travelled to her apartment to try and make sense of a woman she’d never really known. Sala Glass was a European expat in America – defiantly clinging to her French influences, famously reserved, fashionable to the end – yet to Hadley much of her life remained a mystery. Sala’s experience of surviving one of the most tumultuous periods in modern history was never spoken about.
-
-
epic
- By janey on 21-05-20
-
Help Me!
- By: Marianne Power
- Narrated by: Marianne Power
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marianne Power was stuck in a rut. Then one day she wondered: could self-help books help her find the elusive perfect life? What begins as a clever experiment becomes an achingly poignant story. Because self-help can change your life - but not necessarily for the better...Help Me! is an irresistibly funny and incredibly moving book about a wild and ultimately redemptive journey that will resonate with anyone who’s ever dreamed of finding happiness.
-
-
Totally loved It!
- By A. Fahey on 20-09-18
-
The Ratline
- Love, Lies and Justice on the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive
- By: Philippe Sands
- Narrated by: Philippe Sands, Katja Riemann, Stephen Fry
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As governor of Galicia, SS Brigadesführer Otto Freiherr von Wächter presided over an authority on whose territory hundreds of thousands of Jews and Poles were killed. By the time the war ended in May 1945, he was indicted for 'mass murder'. He spent three years hiding in the Alps before making his way to Rome and being taken in by the Vatican where he remained for three months. While preparing to travel to Argentina on the 'ratline' he died unexpectedly, in July 1949, a few days after having lunch with an 'old comrade' whom he suspected of having been recruited by the Americans.
-
-
The banality of evil, and how easily we accept it
- By Colin Dixon on 12-05-20
-
Small Pleasures
- By: Clare Chambers
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jean Swinney is a feature writer on a local paper, disappointed in love and - on the brink of 40 - living a limited existence with her truculent mother: a small life from which there is no likelihood of escape. When a young Swiss woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth, it is down to Jean to discover whether she is a miracle or a fraud. But the more Jean investigates, the more her life becomes strangely (and not unpleasantly) intertwined with that of the Tilburys.
-
-
Poignant, thoughtful & beautifully crafted
- By Rachel Redford on 26-07-20
-
The Peer and the Gangster
- A Very British Cover Up
- By: Dan Smith
- Narrated by: Andrew Cullum
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In July 1964, the Sunday Mirror ran a front-page story headlined: Peer and a Gangster: Yard Enquiry. While withholding the names of the principal subjects, the newspaper reported that the Metropolitan Police had ordered an investigation into an alleged homosexual relationship between ‘a household name’ from the House of Lords and a leading London underworld figure. Bob Boothby was the Conservative lord in question and Ronnie Kray the gangster.
-
-
Plus ca change...
- By Amazon Customer on 17-07-20
-
The Trauma Cleaner
- By: Sarah Krasnostein
- Narrated by: Rachael Tidd
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sandra Pankhurst founded her trauma cleaning business to help people whose emotional scars are written on their houses. From the forgotten flat of a drug addict to the infested home of a hoarder, Sandra enters properties and lives at the same time. But few of the people she looks after know anything of the complexity of Sandra's own life. Raised in an uncaring home, Sandra's miraculous gift for warmth and humour in the face of unspeakable personal tragedy mark her out as a one-off and make this biography unmissable.
-
-
Fascinating
- By Bee on 31-03-18
-
Mr Loverman
- By: Bernardine Evaristo
- Narrated by: James Goode
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Barrington Jedidiah Walker is seventy-four and leads a double life. Born and bred in Antigua, he's lived in Hackney since the sixties. A flamboyant, wise-cracking local character, Barrington is a husband, father and grandfather - but he is also secretly lovers with his great childhood friend, Morris. When his marriage goes into meltdown, Barrington wants to divorce Carmel and live with Morris, but after a lifetime of fear and deception, will he manage to break away?
-
-
It will take you by surprise
- By Pj on 07-08-14
-
Hamnet
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Daisy Donovan
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home? Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London. Neither parent knows that one of the children will not survive the week.
-
-
Narrator fights writing and wins (sadly)
- By Leaf Green on 20-07-20
-
I Love the Bones of You
- By: Christopher Eccleston
- Narrated by: Christopher Eccleston
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on his memories, Chris describes a vivid life of growing up in a Salford, working-class household in the 1970s with his siblings, a loving mother, and the totemic figure of his hardworking, serious-minded and socialist father - Ronnie. How his life changed from a potential future as ‘factory fodder’ in his native Northwest, to a deep-rooted desire to perform onstage, and what developed into a burgeoning acting career.
-
-
Beautiful Poignant Biography
- By Roger Boyle on 04-11-19
-
Men Who Hate Women
- From Incels to Pickup Artists, the Truth About Extreme Misogyny and How It Affects Us All
- By: Laura Bates
- Narrated by: Laura Bates
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this ground-breaking investigation, Laura traces the roots of misogyny across a complex spiders web of groups extending from men's rights activists and pick-up artists to Men Going Their Own Way, trolls and the Incel movement, in the name of which some men have committed terrorist acts. Drawing parallels with other extremist movements around the world, Bates seeks to understand what attracts men to the movement, how it grooms and radicalises boys, how it operates and what can be done to stop it.
-
-
A mindblowing uncovery of the dark and twisted web
- By Joseph W. on 07-09-20
-
Hidden Valley Road
- By: Robert Kolker
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the air force brought them to Colorado, where their 12 children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins - aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony - and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse.
-
-
Poignant, unbelievable and incredibly well written!
- By miss potter on 25-04-20
-
Milkman
- By: Anna Burns
- Narrated by: Bríd Brennan
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes 'interesting'. The last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed and to be noticed is dangerous. Milkman is a tale of gossip and hearsay, silence and deliberate deafness. It is the story of inaction with enormous consequences.
-
-
Very, Very Good
- By David M on 20-10-18
-
The Mayor of Castro Street
- The Life and Times of Harvey Milk
- By: Randy Shilts
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Known as The Mayor of Castro Street even before he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk's personal life, public career, and final assassination reflect the dramatic emergence of the gay community as a political power in America. It is a story full of personal tragedies and political intrigues, assassinations at City Hall, massive riots in the streets, the miscarriage of justice, and the consolidation of gay power and gay hope.
-
-
Compelling narrative
- By Vicuña on 27-04-16
Summary
Just shy of 18, Deborah Orr left Motherwell - the town she both loved and hated - to go to university. It was a decision her mother railed against from the moment the idea was raised. Win had very little agency in the world, every choice was determined by the men in her life. And strangely, she wanted the same for her daughter. Attending university wasn't for the likes of the Orr family. Worse still, it would mean leaving Win behind - and Win wanted Deborah with her at all times, rather like she wanted her arm with her at all times. But while she managed to escape, Deborah's severing from her family was only superficial. She continued to travel back to Motherwell, fantasising about the day that Win might come to accept her as good enough. Though of course it was never meant to be.
Motherwell is a sharp, unflinching and often humorous memoir about the long shadow that can be cast when the core relationship in your life compromises every effort you make to become an individual. It is about what we inherit - the good and the very bad - and how a deeper understanding of the place and people you have come from can bring you towards redemption.
More from the same
Narrator
What listeners say about Motherwell
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rachel Redford
- 05-02-20
Mothering badly in Motherwell
"I love you, Deborah - you're my first born. But I don't like you - at all." This is one of the damagingly unkind things Deborah Orr's mother said to her grown-up daughter, along with telling her on another occasion that she was ugly. Deborah Orr grew up in Motherwell in Lanarkshire, a place she hated & loved, with her harsh Scots father, John, and Essex-born mother Win who ruined lives including her own by rages and poisonous sulks. Orr is brilliant at creating the 1960s & 1970s culture with her father's open loathing of Catholics & homosexuals; when girls immersed themselves in 'Jackie' & their mothers in The People's Friend; the high-rise flats built to re-house desperate people were quickly named Heroin Heights, the saplings planted to produce green spaces were snapped by out of control kids who ruled those bleak spaces along with the drug users. It was one of Deborah's achievements that she won a place at St Andrews university where her grudging mother allowed her to go only if she promised to return 'home' at the end of her time there. In fact Deborah fulfilled her parents' scathing warnings: she found the students alien & way too posh and descended into too much drink, too many spliffs, nasty sex and dropping out of her Honours course. Avoiding shame was Mrs Orr's driving force, a life principle against which Deborah constantly offended. When she brought a partner home to meet her parents (a bad idea) her father spent the night vomiting at the thought of his daughter sleeping with a man UNDER HIS ROOF to whom she wasn't married. Despite all, Deborah loved her parents fiercely and wanted to please her mother - even, she realised later, by marrying (unsuccessfully) and thus doing the 'right thing'. The whole book crackles with vitality including language. The narration by Gabriel Quigley creates accurately the different voices - Deborah's own, her mother's,& her father's in particular. Orr is scrupulously fair in showing her mother's good points as well as the tragedy of their destruction through her rages & her adherence to shame-avoiding rules.It is the sadness of it all which remains with me, not least the fact that Deborah did not live to see her book published. She had to escape her crushing parents, but despite her considerable successes as a journalist, damaged and constantly unquiet, it seems Deborah was for ever fighting to find answers to the answerable in her upbringing.
14 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Stuart Allan
- 29-02-20
Laughs, sadness, anger.. This story has it all.
Weird title for a Mid 30s guy to choose but I live near Motherwell so thought why not. I Laughed, welled up, felt agry, sad.. The works.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Eileen
- 22-02-20
Life Revisited
I loved this book. The perfect union of narrator and story is rare but appreciated
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Shanaz
- 02-02-20
Most honest and heartfelt book.
A very well written book. It took me back to my own childhood. Having a narcissistic mother is very difficult. I feel Deborah is a much more forgiving and kinder daughter than I am.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mrs. Terrie Rintoul
- 04-03-20
An outstanding memoir but..
I hate to nitpick because I thought that this was a fine memoir and as a life-writing teacher I read lots of them. But unfortunately, a mistake on the technical side lets the audio version down. When speaking aloud the often scathing remarks made by Deborah's mother, the narrator switches accents from Scottish to English which is fair enough - the fact that her mother was an English woman living in Motherwell is pivotal to the story - but the trouble is that she also lowers her voice at the same time, making these remarks almost inaudible. Why didn't the person in charge of the sound realise that this was happening and turn up the volume? It sounds like a tiny point but when you also consider that Deborah's hugely complex relationship with her mother is also pivotal to the story makes this technical error much more important than it sounds.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Auntie P
- 28-06-20
Fascinating memoir
I really enjoyed this as the author was born just two years before me, so many of the references, despite the geographical distances, were familiar. I related to many aspects of her life and the story was beautifully woven through with the political climate of the times and its impact on this one local area, as well as the attitudes of her parents' generation. The reading was done well and brought real feeling to the various ups and downs of the author's life. My only criticism here is that the lowered voice used for quoting characters (particularly the mother) were so low that they were very fuzzy and unclear. I had to rewind several times, and had to rewind one quote four times to get what was being said.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- KF
- 11-10-20
Best book I’ve read in years.
Magnificent, thought provoking, nostalgic and funny. I grew up in Motherwell and I absolutely loved this book.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- GC
- 14-09-20
Motherwell by Deborah Orr. A must read.
An exquisite, courageous & insightful book that leaves you wishing you had known Deborah Orr personally. A story that will resonate with so many. Highly recommended.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Annette Pacey
- 30-08-20
Outstanding
Brilliant book. Deborah Orr tells the story of her childhood as if she is relaying it to you over a drink. It's sad and funny and very, very insightful about people, their motivations and the culture that surrounds us. Beautifully subtle, sometimes cutting but also forgiving. What a loss that she is gone too soon. Expertly read for the audiobook with accents just right.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Miss Je Cooke
- 24-08-20
A Beautiful Memoir
I truly adored this memoir. A story of the place Motherwell and a disfunctional but ultimately loving parental relationship. Beautifully read as well.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Margaret
- 02-07-20
Loved it.
Gabriel Quigley's reading of this sensitive and heartfelt memoir is magic, especially for anyone interested in Scotland.