Every Day is Mother's Day
Encyclopedia
Every Day is Mother's Day is the first novel by British author Hilary Mantel
Hilary Mantel
Hilary Mary Mantel CBE , née Thompson, is an English novelist, short story writer and critic. Her work, ranging in subject from personal memoir to historical fiction, has been short-listed for major literary awards...

, published in 1985 by Chatto and Windus
Chatto and Windus
Chatto & Windus has been, since 1987, an imprint of Random House, publishers. It was originally an important publisher of books in London, founded in the Victorian era....

. 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.

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.

External links

  • Every Day is Mother's Day at complete review
    Complete review
    complete review is a literary website founded in March 1999. It is best known for reviews of novels in English translation, in particular drawing attention to otherwise neglected contemporary works from around the world, but there are also reviews of classics, non-fiction, drama and poetry...

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