Alumna Eleanor O'Reilly's Debut Novel 'M for Mammy' Released on March 21st 2019

Eleanor worked on the novel during her MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Eleanor worked on the novel during her MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University. She finished her MA in December 2017.

The novel will be released on March 21st 2019 by Hachette UK. You can order the book here.

The blurb for the novel reads: Meet the Augustts: a loving, Irish family who, like all families, are a bit complicated.

They are bound together by their love for each other, but each expresses themselves in a very different way. When misfortune strikes the family, they must learn to understand each other anew. Sometimes, in a family as complicated as the Augustts, it's not always what is spoken that makes the most sense.

Everything is shaken up when Granny Mae-Anne moves in and takes charge. A force of nature, full of stern words and no-nonsense common sense, it is she who must try and hold the family together.

M for Mammy is an uplifting story about the unique comfort of home, the language we can find when the words aren't there, and the power of a family to heal itself.

Eleanor O'Reilly is a teacher of English and Classical Studies who has just completed an MA in Creative Writing, at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Having first started writing five years ago, she has received several literary prizes, including the 2015 RTE Francis McManus Radio Short Story Award and the 2013 William Trevor International Short Story Award, and has been shortlisted for several others, including the 2016 Colm Toibin Literary Award.

She lives in Ireland with her husband Brian Kelly, their daughter Ella Kelly, and a whole menagerie of pets. M for Mammy is her debut novel.

Eleanor's tutor during her writing up year was Nicholas Royle. Nick is a Reader in Creative Writing here at Manchester Met. He describes how every year he has the privilege of watching new writers grow into themselves. Nick has written seven novels, two novellas and three volumes of short fiction (two full-length collections and a shorter volume). He has also edited twenty anthologies of short stories.