Maggie & Me

De: Damian Barr

Narrado por: Damian Barr

Bloomsbury presents Maggie & Me written and read by Damian Barr

A unique, tender and witty memoir of surviving the tough streets of small town Scotland during the Margaret Thatcher years

'Shocking and funny in equal measure, and will have you weeping with laughter and sorrow' Independent on Sunday

'A work of stealthy genius' Maggie O'Farrell

'Certain memoirs catch a moment and seem to define it, bottle it... hugely entertaining' Sunday Times

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. But darkness threatens as Maggie takes hold: she snatches school milk, smashes the unions and makes greed good. Following Maggie's advice, Damian works hard and plans his escape. He discovers that stories can save your life and - in spite of violence, strikes, AIDS and Clause 28 - manages to fall in love dancing to Madonna in Glasgow's only gay club.

Maggie & Me is a touching and darkly witty memoir about surviving Thatcher's Britain; a story of growing up gay in a straight world and coming out the other side in spite of, and maybe because of, the iron lady.

©2026 Damian Barr (P)2026 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Reseñas de la Crítica

The wonderful story of a remarkable man, Maggie & Me is heartbreaking and heartwarming. As gripping as a thriller, laugh-out-loud funny and deeply touching, this book will resonate long after you finish it. A triumph (SJ Watson, author of Before I Go to Sleep)

Brilliantly observed, searingly intimate and painfully truthful, Maggie & Me brought the eighties back to me at the same time as making me question my established views of the whole decade. In other words, like the very best books, it changed me a little (Sathnam Sanghera author of The Boy with the Topknot)

I was dazzled by the energy and verve of Damian Barr’s memoir, Maggie & Me ... I’ve been shoving copies into people’s hands all year (Johanna Thomas-Corr, Books of the Year)

Damian Barr’s wonderful memoir Maggie & Me … was the coming-of-age story of this year (Louise Doughty, Books of the Year)

Damian Barr’s Maggie & Me is easily my favourite book of 2013 ... There isn’t a trace of bitterness in the beautiful book. Only the radiant eloquence of a man whose courage and humanity shine from its pages (Alan Johnson, Books of the Year)