Mother’s Ruin

Book Review

Mother’s Ruin
Author: Nicola Barry
Publisher: Headline Review, 256 pages

NICOLA Barry’s mother, Monica, was a trained medic and the wife of a consultant anaesthetist. A beautiful, bright woman with three children, Monica led a secret life behind closed doors, drinking herself unconscious, transforming herself from a beauty to a wizened old lady.

Nicola suffered the most – forced to play nursemaid while her brothers were away at public school, she grew to both love and hate her mother. Deprived of care and love from Monica, who drank herself to death, Nicola also has her own struggle with alcohol. However, determined to avoid the same end as her mother, she manages to overcome her addiction and emerges a survivor.