Nothing Left Unsaid

By: Janey Godley

Narrated by: Janey Godley

Glasgow, 2019. Sharon has rushed home at the news her mother has been admitted to hospital. It's clear Senga's life is coming to an end. As Sharon gathers family and friends together to say goodbye, Senga, as always, does things in her own mysterious way. She instructs Sharon to find the red diary she kept in the 1970s and to read it. There's something Senga needs to talk about while she still has time. The journey into her mother's past is both shocking and surprising, forcing Sharon to re-evaluate her own childhood, her marriage and what she wants her own future to hold.

Glasgow, 1976. Life in the tenements of Shettleston is a daily struggle. You need your wits about you to survive, and your friends. Senga has both in spades: she is part of the Shettleston 'menage' alongside her friends Bunty, Sandra, Philomena and Isa, and whatever life hands to them—cheating husbands, poverty, illness, threats and abuse—they throw something back just as hard. These women are strong because they need to be. And they never, ever walk away in times of crisis—as Sharon is about to find out.

©2022 Janey Godley (P)2022 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Critic reviews

"Vibrant, warm and often hilarious. An absolute delight." (Jane Fallon)

"Sharpest-elbowed comedy in the world." (The New York Times)

"A great comic." (Billy Connolly)

An Absolute Gem!

This is a story about the magic of friendship, loyalty, and family. Senga lies dying in the hospital in Glasgow. Her daughter, Sharon, goes home to her mother. She calls her brother and sister and tells them they need to come, too. Senga tells Sharon that she’s got a hidden diary, and she wants Sharon to read it. Senga also wants Sharon to get her old pals from the Close together before she dies. Sharon reads the diary, and we’re taken back to 1978, where we meet Senga’s pals as young women, and learn the lengths they will go to in order to protect each other, and we learn about grown children who love and accept their mother unconditionally.

This book could have been dry and depressing, but it most certainly is not. It is a delight from start to finish. Janey Godley is a master storyteller and performer. I hope there are many more book to come from this extraordinary woman.

Loved every word even the swearies

Great, gritty, sad, funny, heart warming and heart breaking. Relating as a woman born into the slums of Glasgow, Gorbals-then new housing estate, Castlemilk. Listening now with my, raised in California, daughter this very relevant story of my growing up in Glasgow.
Janey, you are a Goddess.