The Girl in the Wardrobe
by Jennifer Farrell
Format: Paperback
Publication date: 12th January, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-907179-32-7
Price: €15.00
Patti remembers life in the tenement in Wolfe Tone Street where rats scratched under the floorboards and the hoolies went on all night. Her family are re housed by Dublin Corporation and they move up town to a damp two bedroom flat. The Girl in the Wardrobe tells the story of a young girl growing up in the heart of the city. Attending a strict convent school, she hates gymslips and margarine sandwiches, the smell of cabbage and cauliflower. She loves reading Pippi Longstocking and Huckleberry Finn. She likes going up Nelson Pillar with her friends for a sneaky smoke.
The story moves north and south of the Liffey between three households. There’s her Ma and Da, her grannies and grandas, one of them an ex British soldier who died before she was born. A bunch of uncles and aunts who all go to different chapels. She goes to the pawnbrokers and the Dairy where they have their own page in the accounts ledger. She lives in fear of being sent to an industrial school. She prays for their dead babies in the holy angels plot in Glasnevin Cemetery and for the holy souls in Purgatory.
About the Author
Jennifer Farrell’s childhood memoir won the Inaugural Memoir prize at Listowel Writers’ Week in 2007. The previous year, she won two Hennessy awards for her short story Beached. She is currently working on a short story collection and a novel. She studied at NUI Maynooth as a mature student in the nineties where she got her degree in history and sociology. She received a master’s degree in 1995. She was born in Foley Street in the north inner city of Dublin, which was part of the notorious red light district called Monto. She now lives in Chapelizod with her family.
Please visit Jennifer’s Website
