EXCLUSIVEKate is reunited with her three children for the first time in two weeks after leaving hospital.

Its actually quite the emotional read,about family,what it is to you in all its forms,and how you will cling on to it.With Irish family and my parents being from North London, it felt relatively easy for me to relate to and dive into the narrative.

Every week, join journalist and author Yomi Agedoke, and inspirational guests, including Elizabeth Day, Sara Pascoe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as they celebrate the best books written by women. Radio 1 mainstay Annie Mac launched her Finding Annie podcast in 2019, renaming it Changes With Annie Mac after two series. In the pub where Orla works, run by a tough Irish woman, she is exposed to Mayo Dave and Gerry, who left the old sod to make a living in London. The main strength of this book is the music references (as is to be expected given the author’s background), and there is a lot to be said for stories that show the drudgery of life and don’t gloss over the badness too much. She has been a key music industry figure championing female and LGBTQ+ artists and advocating for positive, inclusive change.

I found lots of it very relatable - the drunken ‘encounters’, whether the boy you like is going to reply to your messages, navigating relationships in a foreign city and trying to find where you fit in. This is the story of a young woman thrashing through life, trying to find home in a strange new place. Photograph: Stephanie Sian Smith View image in fullscreen Annie Macmanus ‘captures a time and a place with heart and irresistible momentum’. At the start, there were enthusiastic attempts to include the children’s grandparents in their home-schooling curriculum, but, as the weeks rolled by, the kids stopped engaging. She also studied Greek mythology and a poetry module, for which she submitted an end-of-term collection of her own poetry, titled Grrrr.