New Literature: Worthless by Marilyn Hardy

‘I was thirteen years old when I decided to end my life. Though, at the time, it was probably more of a cry for attention than a deliberate suicide attempt. All my young life I felt that I had been striving to win my mother’s affection, yet in my heart I could only feel her bitter rejection.’ Marilyn.

In this honest and moving memoir, Marilyn Hardy recounts the trials and tribulations of her life: an impoverished childhood in a northern mining town; the difficult relationship with her undemonstrative mother and her beloved father’s death. In adulthood she was married to a violent man and struggled to bring up her three children with her own serious health problems.

She writes with grace and candour, and with such closely observed descriptions of times past that the reader feels transported to another era.

Marilyn grew up in Stanley, a mining town in County Durham, in a post-war prefab house. She was very close to her two sisters and father but constantly struggled to build a relationship with her cold mother. At 13 she attempted suicide after being indecently assaulted by a group of boys and failing to receive the support she craved from her mum. After the attempt she was sent to a mental hospital from where she was later rescued by her father.

At just 17, Marilyn married a local boy named Ian and within the year had trained as a nurse alongside giving birth to two children. Sadly by the time she was 21 her husband had left her to fend for their two small children on very little income. Even in the depths of poverty her children were her inspiration and she would only let herself go hungry.

In 1974 Marilyn married for the second time but this relationship soon became a loveless and violent marriage, in a time before police could not get involved in domestic abuse. During this stage of her life she lived and worked in a mental hospital with her children and alcoholic husband. After a court injunction and gruelling divorce, Marilyn was finally freed from the violence and left alone with her children once more.

These were times of great social upheaval. The mines were closing, strikes were commonplace and power cuts were frequent in this period under Ted Heath.

Marilyn has shown amazing resilience throughout her life; recovering from a heart attack, stroke and other major health problems as well as overcoming social and personal obstacles. She eventually achieved happiness with Richard Hardy whom she married in Leicester in 1986.

Marilyn has found peace with Richard in watching her family grow. At 59, she now has three children, three step-children and eleven grandchildren. This is her first book.

Published by Virgin Books on 8th February 2007, £14.99, Hardback.