Book Blurb:
It’s 1920s London and the world is in a deep economic depression. Times are very hard and the city is rife with unemployment, poverty and disease. One family in East London have managed to keep themselves afloat, housed and fed, despite having one parent with a long-term mental health condition, but that is all about to change as their teenage daughter is catapulted into a series of life events which are traumatic, heartbreaking and shocking but which make her become a much stronger and more resilient human being than she ever dreamed possible.
This is a harrowing story of innocence, shame, hostility and vicious cruelty from the very people who should be caring for those in need, but it is tempered with love, hope and the potential to change one’s situation given the right opportunities.
Although fictional, this was a true story for many women of that time and is based on several older women whom the author met and supported whilst an NHS nurse in the large hospital system.
Book Buy Link: https://geni.us/PEQk
Author Bio:
Mike Delaney Reg MBACP, Fellow ACCPH.
Mental Health/Trauma/Addictions Therapist
Author. Broadcaster. Media Expert
Mike Delaney is well known and respected Mental Health/Addictions Therapist with over 45 years’ experience working with hospitals, individuals, rehabilitation centres and professional bodies in the UK and internationally.
He is a Registered Member of The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and has recently retired his Nursing Registration, which he held for 38yrs. He has also recently been awarded Fellow ACCPH (Accredited Counsellors, Coaches, Psychotherapists and Hypnotherapists) and is a certified Clinical Trauma Specialist
Until 2018 he had a successful private practice in Harley Street London, and provided training for a number of Organisations including Veterans Aid in London and for a number of years was a Director of Pathways Supported Housing in Weston-super-Mare and LEAP Equine Therapeutic Programmes Ltd.
Mike gives talks and presents papers on Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy in the UK and abroad, including a presentation of a LEAP research paper to the Royal College of Psychiatrists Conference around the efficacy of EFP for young people who have experienced childhood sexual trauma.
Over the last 20yrs, Mike had been involved in contributing to many tv documentaries including the BBC Bafta award winning “Lager, Mum and Me”, Channel 4’s “Beauty and The Beast” and Channel 5’s “The Comeback of Ant McPartlin”
In recovery himself from addiction to alcohol and drugs since 1996, Mike has had first-hand experience of the devastating effects of addiction on an individual and their loved ones and is passionate about using his vast practical and theoretical expertise to help others to succeed in recovery, whether it be from alcohol, drugs, depression, sex, co-dependency, food or gambling.
In 2018 Mike returned to his native Scotland where he has just opened a new Practice in Hope Street, Glasgow where he will see clients on a one to one basis but is also planning to run workshops and groups from the beautiful offices he shares with Dr Claire Macauley
In early 2020, Mike contracted Covid-19 in the first wave and became quite ill whilst on holiday in Barbados. He was quarantined in an army base for 30days and was then stranded for several weeks as all airports were closed. This is where the ideas for two books began to germinate. One, his biography, charting the ups and downs of a very interesting life, and two, a story which was circulating in his mind but which he felt frightened of attempting. On returning to the UK, lockdown gave him the first opportunity to have the time and space to explore these ideas. His biography, Behind the Smile, was completed first and will be available early next year. Mabel Murphy was then created and developed over a number of weeks where he worked in a very disciplined fashion, getting dressed and going to his home-office every day after breakfast, working through until lunchtime and then again in the afternoon. This routine helped him to get the bones of the story down in a couple of weeks, and then it could be further developed and grown.
The reviews so far have been a wonderful surprise for Mike as it is his first attempt and they have been extremely positive and complimentary.
Website) www.mikedelaneytherapy.com
Email) mike@mikedelaneytherapy.com
Editorial Review:
Mabel and Sarah are discussing boys. Or more accurately, Tom, who is apparently sweet on Mabel. It’s spring in 1930, and the possibility of Mabel being so daring as to kiss Tom on the lips, or be kissed, is being discussed. After all, Mabel will be 14 soon, and is surely grown up, according to Sarah, anyway. This exchange should be innocent, and make every reader smile, and perhaps it does. But many of us as adults are aware that sometimes, life takes a turn, and childhood is lost, and evil intrudes, and then lives are ruined, and people look back and murmur about different times and social attitudes and hint at things, but that…still doesn’t fix what has happened.
“Mabel Murphy” by Mike Delaney will make any of us with “gaps” in our family history and a closet where sometimes the family skeletons will not just stay hidden, shed a tear and reach for the phone to call that elderly relative who just, well, you know. Some of us, too, might need a trigger warning – this novel is unflinching and real and will grab you and keep you reading, but the flip side of that is a lot of emotion is felt and unleashed. We probably all know a Mabel in our family or family history, or variations of her. Sometimes they are hidden, and take some finding, perhaps a reference in a newspaper article to an orphanage or a “home”, perhaps a query about a family tree, an unmarked grave or a sister or aunt that, ahem, moved away.
The storyline primarily focuses on Mabel, but of course there are compelling secondary characters as the decades pass, some true friendships, loss, betrayal and hardship. Mabel’s time in an institution is a mirror of society, and her attempts to escape are heartrending.
At times the writing style becomes one of recounting, rather than scenes that immediately draw the reader in. While some readers may find that creates a sense of distance, other readers may prefer the background details provided through this approach. The dialogue is authentic for the times in which the novel is set.
“Mabel Murphy” by Mike Delaney is an absorbing yet gritty read and stands as a tribute to those who are often the most vulnerable in our society – those women who suffer great wrong and then lose their agency and freedom – and so much more. It is hoped that such women can finally step out of the shadows of hushed family whispers and back into the light.
*****
“Mabel Murphy” by Mike Delaney receives 4 ½ stars from The Historical Fiction Company
To have your historical novel editorially reviewed and/or enter the HFC Book of the Year contest, please visit www.thehistoricalfictioncompany.com/book-awards/award-submission
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