Author: Martha Long
Title: Ma, He Sold
Me For A Few Cigarettes
Genre: biography, child abuse,
tragic life stories, sexual abuse and autobiography
Synopsis: I charge fer the door, an jackser grabs me by the hair an punches me in the face. An me nose shoots out blood like a fountain. Then he opens the door an slams me across the hall, flyin through the air until l hit the woman’s door opposite. I lay like a heap of rubbish on the ground, pumpin blood everywhere. I was choking on it. I wanted te get back up te try an stop him from killin everyone, but l was winded, an the pain in me back an chest wouldn’t let me breathe. I was desperately lookin out the hall, hopin someone would come, but it was dark. An the only noise was our screamin. Jesus! Jesus! Please don’t let him kill us. Make him stop. Born a bastard to a teenage mother in the slums of 1950s Dublin, Martha has to be a fighter from the very start. As her mother moves from man to man, and more children follow, they live hand to mouth in squalid, freezing tenements, clothed in rags and forced to bed for food. But just when it seems things can’t get any worse, her mother meets jackser. Despite her trials, Martha is a child with an irrepressible spirit and a wit beyond her years. She tells the story of her early life without an ounce of self-pity and manages to recreate a lost era in which the shadow of the catholic church loomed large and if you didn’t work you didn’t eat. Martha never stops believing she is worth more than the hand she had been dealt, and her remarkable voice will remain with you long after you’ve finished the last line. Acknowledgements with thanks to my children Fabian and marieclarie. Both of you a joy. Both, every mother’s dream and l am the mother! Wonders will never cease. How lucky can l get? To my first firstborn Tina, always a special bond, and to her two little beautiies, Charlie and William, my adorable grandchildren. To Ailsa, my editor. Thank you for your extraordinary patience and most of all your warmth and your kindness. To bill, a very astute man. Thank you, bill, l feel privileged to have your faith in me. A special thank you to Mary Dunne for tirelessly poring over my handwritten script and managing to type it all. Not an easy task. Take a bow, Mary. last but not least, to Helen scully. Thanks, Helen, for all your encouragement. Without you this would not be in the public domain. Thanks, friend!. Martha has to steal so her and her mother can eat after jackser kicks them out and gives her siblings up to social workers and Martha nicks bars of butter from Woolworths and she gets seen and she sent to a young offenders.
Review: l was sickened to read that jackser sold Martha for a few cigarettes and he always hit the children and then kicked Martha and her mother out and then give the children to social services to be adopted out and Martha ends up stealing to feed herself and her mother and she seen taking the sticks of butter and sent to a young offenders but she stole herself a pair of socks and sandals cause her shoes have got holes in them. Luckily she survived and she was brave enough to write this book to tell the world what she went though and now she got children and grandchildren and she’s sounded by the love of her children and grandchildren. I think that jackser was sick in the head for selling Martha for a few cigarettes and hitting her and then giving her siblings up to be adopted was wrong he could of give them to Martha’s mother but she did wrong by making Martha shoplifted so she was not as bad as him but it was still wrong and she should have known better. Hope Martha is reunion with her siblings one day.
Star Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
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