How bad does it have to be for a mother to leave? It would have been easy to say that Kay O'Gorman just continued the cycle of her own neglect and abandonment, but she thought that too easy an excuse. It would have been easy to place the blame on her own traumatic childhood, on the early death of her mother, on her domineering but charismatic father. To escape this background, she married early but, like many such marriages, it was not a happy union. She hoped that children would change things, but they did not. Her circumstances grew ever more desperate. Kay fled. She formed a new relationship, but her sense of guilt at having abandoned her children oppressed her to the point that she herself developed problems with alcohol. It took a long time, but finally she sorted out her life. In Where's Your Mama Gone? she writes with unflinching truth about her past and the motivations for her actions. It recalls an Ireland of casual cruelty, all-powerful authority figures, sexual ignorance and non-existent choice.

A pregnant woman takes the ferry to the UK. A fractious intimate relationship develops between an Irish woman, an English man, and her girlfriend. Two ungendered characters contest the same female body. A deserted wife takes a lover but remains unsatisfied. Lauren Foley's debut collection of dramatic short stories, Polluted Sex, is fearless in its depiction of women's bodies and sexuality, offering an unflinching window into Irish girl and womanhood.

This is the story of a boy, a tunnel, a prep school, a bully, a riding accident and revenge. Stephen is new to a progressive prep school in the midst of the Shropshire countryside. Arriving a term late, he is picked on by one of the boys and challenged to a dare.The dare goes wrong and the tables are turned, the bully is buried in a tunnel. Only Stephen knows that he is there. Back at school, Stephen starts to enjoy school for the first time. Perhaps it would be better for everyone if the bully remained buried. What would you do? What should Stephen do?

A boarding school in the depths of the country, no escape. A bully tormenting one child. Then, the nightmare ends when the tormentor disappears in a tunnel that caves in. Stephen has a choice, tell no one of the collapse and be free from persecution or rescue the person who had made his life a misery and return to living in fear and trepidation. What would you do? Find out what Stephen did and how he justified his actions.

A reader's review: couldn't resist purchasing this as I read the Snippet on Amazon and felt I just had to read on, I've finished ADBEC and I have to say I am absolutely stunned by your recollection of how it all was, and all of the characters, some of your recollections were identical to mine. It is very rare for me to gasp or laugh aloud when reading, a reaction usually reserved exclusively for the late Tom Sharpe; but I did reading ADBEC! Recognised a few people - Ursula Watts - our memories concur! So AD BEC link is: http: //www.lulu.com/shop/michael-fitzalan/a-dish-best-eaten-cold-adbec-a-tale-of-revenge/paperback/product-20201102.html