Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?: A Memoir
SÉAMAS O’REILLY
(FLEET, 240 PP, £16.99)
Tablet bookshop price £15.29 • tel 020 7799 4064

Séamas O’Reilly grew up in Northern Ireland during the 1990s, one of 11 ­children. The formative moment of his childhood came when he was five years old, and his mother died from breast cancer at the age of just 43. Three decades later, this memoir traces the effect that such a traumatic loss had upon the rest of the author’s life and upon the life of his large family.

This has, therefore, the potential to be rather a glum affair, and at moments O’Reilly’s ­narrative is genuinely affecting. But what’s impressive is that he maintains a careful balance between light and shade. Although his ostensible subject matter is grief, he happens to be an extremely gifted comic writer, adept at crafting a gag, and he does not allow the tone to become maudlin or self-indulgent.