Every Day is Mother's Day

Every Day is Mother's Day  

1st edition
Author(s) Hilary Mantel
Country England
Language English
Genre(s) Novel
Publisher Chatto and Windus
Publication date 28 Mar 1985[1]
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 230
ISBN 070112895X
OCLC Number 11631321
Followed by Vacant Possession

Every Day is Mother's Day is the first novel by British author Hilary Mantel, published in 1985 by Chatto and Windus. It was inspired in part by Hilary Mantel's own experiences as a social work assistant at a geriatric hospital which involved visits to patients in the community and access to case notes, the loss of which play an important part of the novel.[2]

Plot introduction

It is a black comedy set in the mid 1970s and begins with the widowed spiritualist Evelyn Axon's discovery that her mentally handicapped daughter Muriel is pregnant. Isabel Field is the latest social worker to tackle the Axon's but Evelyn is determined not to let anyone interfere with Muriel, whose condition she blames on her daughter's recent weekly visits to a daycare centre. Isabel Field herself is having an affair with the brother of Evelyn's neighbour and the story of this relationship is interwoven with that of Evelyn and Muriel's and the birth of the baby...

The story is continued in Hilary Mantel's next novel Vacant Possession.

References

  1. ^ http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/edition/?isbn=070112895X
  2. ^ Afterword of Harper Perenniel edition published 2006

External links