An Evening with Emily Morris at Waterstones

Emily Morris’ long-awaited memoir novel, My Shitty Twenties, is out later this week and we get a sneak peek a couple of days in advance of the official publication date.

The book My Shitty Twenties, out on Salt Publishing, is based on an award-winning blog of the same name, all about life as a single mum. Emily started writing it when her son was two and she needed to find something fun to break up her boring days at home. She’d been just 22 and partway through university when she discovered that she was pregnant, and she describes how it felt like an alien invasion. Nonetheless, her instincts took over and, despite being totally unmaternal, she went ahead with the pregnancy. The baby’s father left her in the lurch, his parting shot: “Enjoy your impending shitty, snotty, vomity twenties.”

Animals author, and pal of this column, Emma Jane Unsworth calls it “the freshest, frankest, wisest, ballsiest memoir I’ve read”. She goes on with the praise: “Daring, eloquent, and important: a glorious tale of one woman’s triumph over the past and her own fears as she learns how to be a single parent in a world where ‘single’ is still a dirty word. I cried heaps and adored every page.”

This promises to be a funny, heart-warming evening, and tickets include a glass of wine or soft drink on arrival.

Meanwhile, make a date in your diary for the return of Waterstones Deansgate’s monthly literary quiz. It’s free to enter and the winning team will be showered with (not literally – that might hurt) a selection of books. The quiz is on Monday 24 July at 6.30pm in the cafe on the second floor. More here.