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Once in a House on Fire (Paperback)

by Andrea Ashworth (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (61 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Picador; New edition edition (9 April 1999)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0330351923
  • ISBN-13: 978-0330351928
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 157,151 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Given her start in life, it is all the more remarkable that Andrea Ashworth should have turned out to be an Oxford graduate with such a compelling memoir under her belt. Her father died when she was five, her mother was left, poor and isolated in 70s, depressed Manchester to bring up Andrea and her younger sister singlehandedly. Along comes a physically abusive stepfather who sets about dragging the young family into the pits of despair, petty crime and sordid poverty. But Ashworth writes an enchanting story that blends social history (the 70s are rendered with an acute eye for detail) with poetic intensity. She turns a child's uncomprehending gaze on the domestic horrors of working- class life when it is dominated by a vicious man and drunken, self-pitying mother. We know, as we listen with Andrea, that her mother has decided to leave her man when she puts Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" on the turntable. Unfortunately, we know, too, that she was kidding herself when said man comes home and twirls her round the front room to the sound of Motown disco. We know, because Ashworth makes us re-live her childhood by dint of her astonishing gift for storytelling. --Lilian Pizzichini

Scotsman
'This is a brilliant book. Brilliantly written, brilliantly thought, brilliantly remembered' --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

61 Reviews
5 star:
 (48)
4 star:
 (7)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (61 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Not just a harrowing tale!, 23 Sep 2001
Andrea Ashworth does indeed provide us with a fantastic story of how she battled against the violence and hardship of a Manchester back-street life but this book is so much more than this. It's not really a harrowing 'Angela's Ashes' tale that has you shedding tears at every page turn; it's an amazingly detailed account of simply growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. Andrea was born in 1969, the same year as myself, and although I experienced nothing of her physical abuse at the hands of drunken stepfathers, her incredible attention to detail evoked many of my own experiences of adolescence that I had forgotten. She remembers amazing precise details of TV programmes, what songs were in the charts, minute details of fashions and recreates the fear and wonderment that any girl surely feels while growing up.

Don't be put off this book thinking that it will be traumatic reading - it's also packed with funny anecdotes, and snatches of dialogue from a fast-fading era.

I'm sure Andrea Ashworth's story is not one in a million. Thousands of people experience what she went through on streets up and down the country every day, but what makes HER one in a million is her ability to tell it in such a vivid manner.

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars What reading is all about, 1 Dec 1999
By A Customer
Anyone on the train watching me read the first couple of chapters of this book would have witnessed the outward signs of a mental battle. I put the book down, only to pick it up again a second later and so it continued througout the first few chapters. Too painful to read and yet the writing was so lean and true.I couldn't resist.

This book could so easily have turned into a self pitying, and purely shocking book. But the account is so evenly balanced, and the under statement so well judged that the reader is left fighting "Andy's" corner all the more. I was carried along in the rollercoaster,hoping against hope that each "new man" was "the one", not willing to resign myself to the fact that the page would end in flying fists and broken ornaments. I felt the hurt every time.

Yes, the accademic success is a triumph over adversity, but far beyond that is the connection with something greater beyond those four walls.

I cannot claim to have had the same experiences, I'm lucky. But the greatness of this book is that , that doesn't matter.

As someone once said, "You read to know you are not alone" Ashworth found sanctury in the words of others and I found it in hers.

Read it.

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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Andrea Ashworth's memoir is truly inspiring, 24 Aug 2000
By A Customer
I can definitely say that this is the most amazing book that I have ever read. For me what made it so compelling is the fact that the events Ashworth describes are that of her own life, which make the book both hearatbreaking yet extremely uplifting. Because it rings so true you find yourself empathising with Andrea and rooting for her, willing her to survive the "fire" and escape the house where her childhood traumas took place. As an 18-year-old I could identify with some of her teenage problems but also realised that compared to her I have been extremely fortunate in my life so far. If you want to appreciate what you have got, read this book. The part that affected me most was when Andrea and her sister Laurie found all the knives in the house and made sheaths for them out of sellotape and cardboard in an attempt to render them harmless, afraid that their stepfather was eventually about to kill their mother. This made me realise how lucky I am never to have had to fear for my safety of the safety of someone in my family in my own home. But I felt more admiration than pity for Andrea, who through education and a love of books, succeded enough to be able to escape from home to pursue her dreams at Oxford University. Despite the many sad events in this book, the ending is remarkably positive, with Andrea leaving home in a taxi bound for Oxford. Although it is a story of abuse and terror, it is by no means depressing. A truly inspirational book which I don't think I will ever forget.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars unforgettable
I based my A'level cousework on this book and therefore studied it in great depth.8yrs have now passed and i actually remember very little of the details of the book, howvever the... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Nadine Donaghy

5.0 out of 5 stars Once In A House On Fire
I love this book, it is beautifully written. Andrea is so strong and intelligent, although this book is extrememly sad it's also about love and supporting each other through the... Read more
Published 3 months ago by J. L. White

3.0 out of 5 stars Once in A House On Fire
I thought this book would be better than it turned out to be.
It was readable but not one i would be recommending o friends with similar taste in literature to me.
Published 4 months ago by Ms. Gail A. Conder

5.0 out of 5 stars my favourite book of all time
humbling as it is uplifting, I have never enjoyed a book more. Since I first got this book when I was 13 years old I must have read it 15, 20 times. Read more
Published 7 months ago by trulymadlydeeply

5.0 out of 5 stars I AGREE WITH MOST
This is a brilliant book. Abusive stepfather, mother who constantly vows to break free but just can`t do it for one reason or another, and stuck in the middle is a desperately... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Leeds lass

5.0 out of 5 stars Stays in my memory
I was given this book just after it came out and loved it from beginning to end. I have since bought it for many of my friends as presents and it is one of the few books I can... Read more
Published 17 months ago by L. Robinson

4.0 out of 5 stars Just a touch too long.
A good read although a little long for me as a memoir. I liked it most because I knew the songs etc as I grew up at the same time as the author. Read more
Published 17 months ago by SJSmith

1.0 out of 5 stars it's grim up north
A fairly unpleasant childhood recounted in a rather tediously. Clunky, undergrad imagery; "the skies wept. When they weren't weeping they sulked". Read more
Published on 11 Jul 2007 by wombat

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good book
I read this book when it was first published and it has stuck in my mind. In fact, as an English teacher, I used a couple of passages as stimulus for creative writing with my... Read more
Published on 22 April 2007 by lilysmum

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly inspirational book
Whilst dealing with the unpalatable issue of domestic violence, coupled with the gritty reality of social deprivation, this remarkable book manages to evade any trace of self-pity... Read more
Published on 12 Feb 2006

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