'She was a good person when she wasn't drunk.'
Debbie's earliest memory of her mother is that her mother was not there, but any story of neglect always has two sides.
When Debbie's daughter, Heather, says she wants to write a book about her upbringing, Debbie begins to string together jagged memories of growing up with Stella, and it's proving more painful than she could've ever imagined.
Part memoir, part biography, part imagination, Little Bit is a story with a third side. Told in the alternating perspectives of Debbie and Stella, Heather writes the story of her mother's and grandmother's lives, where addiction is rife and regret is a constant, and where survival for a woman in a man's world is anything but straightforward. Fiction or nonfiction, this is a book that cannot be categorised and will not be quiet.
Praise for Little Bit
'Little Bit is a richly imagined novel of grief, yearning, love and despair. But it's also a real-life love-letter sent from a daughter to her mother, mailed from the present to the past, recalling lives marked by sadness that would be unbearable if the telling was not so unblinking and true.' – Geordie Williamson
‘Inventive, evocative, and fiercely loving.’ – Anna Goldsworthy
‘A moving testament to the collective nature of storytelling, Little Bit uncovers and embraces both the desire and difficulty we confront when seeking to know the past. With compassion and honesty, Heather Taylor-Johnson weaves the stories of three women – including herself as writer, daughter and granddaughter – into an impressively layered exploration of trauma's legacy and our need to know and remember. Debbie's story and Heather's journey to telling it will stay with me.’ – Katherine Brabon
‘A loving excavation of a family’s dysfunction. Heartbreaking one minute, and darkly comic the next. Prepare to lose your heart to its rowdy, resilient, incorrigible cast of characters.’ – Carol Lefevre
