I have pre ordered the next book and until then will wait and see, I have a feeling you will be in my thoughts for awhile too martha long.. I read Ma He sold me for a few cigarettes over the course of one day it was so unbelieveable that someone could go through this. How Jackser never killed her is something only God knows. The woman is a walking miracle. Martha Long inspires hope in to many people and I for one will be going out to buy her next book.
I hope she knows how truly inspirational she is one, for not only telling her story but two to triumphing and becoming not only a woman but a mother also. She is such a courageous and brave woman. My partner and I both read this amazing book. My partner then wanted to find more about you Martha and your siblings.
We are very glad you are sharing more of your amazing life in the near future with us. We hope that today you have found peace and are living the life you so greatly deserve. I hope you read this Martha…. You would of made a wonderful nurse. I read your book. I fell in love with you in the first page. I walked as a ghost beside you while it all unfolded before my eyes. I want too so desperately…. I love you Martha and I love who you are. Gawd tell us, did that Jackser fella get what he deserved eventually?
What happened to your brothers and sisters? Was there more to come after they took you away? I had Ma he sold me for a few cigarettes sitting in my bookcase for quite a while before I finally started reading it. I read non-stop for 10 hours yesterday with interruptions from kiddies! The cruelty and stupidity of adults certainly beggars belief and I hope that bastard Jackser is 6 feet under.
I find myself very worried about what happened to your siblings, particularly when I read about Charlie being left alone with Jackser and your brothers and sisters coming back from the homes looking like they had no life left in them. I hope they, like you, were able to find some happiness one day. I wonder if they like Martha were able to make their way in the world. We have heard so much about instititional abuse but I really think this pales all.
Even if only a quarter of it was true and I know that all of it is and probably more that she has forgotten about then it is a scandal. She deserves a gold medal for living. Is there a follow up to its a cold Old Night, I hope we can get to the end of your story Martha Charlie, Jackser what happened?
Would someone plwase let me know. It is a story that has upset me. It starts when she is sixteen and gets out of the convent and ends when she is I shure hope there will be another book to tell us what happened from then on and if she ever found Happiness and her mom and Brothers and sisters and what ever happens to the evil Jackster?
Never have i read a book on abuse but, did I read this book! I have such an affectionate place in my heart for Martha, she will live in my heart forever i need to know what has happened to Charlie and the rest of her siblings..
You are one in a million Martha a very special Angel God sent to us! Not looking back,.. I so wished i could reach across the years to that adoreable wee lassie to cuddle and protect her.. Martha, you are truly an inspiration. Good on you for fighting so hard and never giving up. I wish you a life full of much deserved love and happiness. Noone, let alone a child, should have to endure what you did.
I hope your ma and Jackser got what was coming to them. The time you rang the guards about the donkey, i thought that was priceless and when i think of it, all i see is poor donkey showing off his big set of teeth while the nuns are flapping about in a tizzy.
I was in a convent boarding for 2 years through a more relaxed envirnoment than yours Martha , however, there was nothing as good as making fun for yourself, especially wen some poor unfortunate nun happens to be very innocent. But, the loneliness is terrible so i can only imagine what it must have been like for you. Anyway, I would like to congratulate you on jus being you, kind and warm. I find it amazing that you remained the same person throughout, Yes you fought your corner and rightly so, fight for survival out there and nonone else was going to fight for you.
Even though lots of people tried to knock it out of you That is something oneone elso took from you. Do you think your granny still looks out for you. I wish you peace in your head and good health throughtout. I hope when i read your 3rd book, that i find out what happened to poor Charlie and the others, I hope he came safe. Thankyou and well done. I was straight on to google to see if there was a follow up book.
I have been left with an ache for your brother Charlie, left behind in the hands of that revolting man, Jackser. I hope in your next book we find out that he too, along with your other siblings, escaped the brutality. Well done Martha for staying so strong through it all. If only we could do something for the all children who are still being raised in such awful abusive homes.
I must go and cuddle my daughter 4, and my son 10 months and let them know they are truely loved. Thank you Martha. I was so relieved to find out there was. I have never read such a deep and moving story in my life. I too want to go back in time and find Martha when she was a child and save her from all the cruelty she was enduring and just make her happy and give her the love she must have craved every day.
I just hope she is happy in her life now she so deserves to be. I also hope the rest of her siblings found happiness too. I wanted to take that little girl home and love her and protect her. It amazes me how people could know what was happening yes do nothing to help. You are such a strong lady Martha and you have come so far in your life.
You are so brave to have dragged up your past to share what happened to you with the rest of us. You have a huge fan base and totally deserve it. I too am desperate to find out what happens next. I wanted to read that everything worked out well in the end and that you and your siblings found happiness. Everyone on this site says there is a new book coming out but does anybody know how long it will be before we can all run off to the shops to buy it?
How inspirational and sad your first book was, I truly commend you and your family for having courage to recall the horific childhood you had. I am a single mother of two beautiful boys and I am also a teacher and all I can say to you is this, if I had been your teacher I would have treated you differently at school, for a lot of my job deals with children of disadvantage.
I myself grew up not knowing who my father was and I had two siblings for two different fathers. Things were rough and tough in my house growing up not as much as yours though! I now take great pride in teaching an working with children that are less fortunate in this country, and your story has just provided me with extra stamina to do the job. Thank you very much martha!!! First book i have bought in a very LONG time, amazing book i read it with in three days — as have most of my colleagues at work.
We cant wait to hear what happened next and one of my colleagues really wants to know if Charlie is ok! I love the way the book has been written — with feeling but not self pity. I think if it been written with the pity it deserves I would have ended up being an emotional wreck. Thank you Martha for opening your heart and sharing with us all your inner child. I cant wait to read your next book. Martha long, a truly remarkable lady who shared her childhood with every reader, you made me experience all different emotions from sorrow, admiration, joy and frustration.
It was an honour for letting me share part of your life. Martha if you read this I hope with all my heart you went on to become the person you were born to be. You have made me cry and smile whilst reading your book and I find it so hard to think that no one would help you.
You must of felt so let down by Irish society in those days. It must of been a very long and painfull journey back in time for you to dredge up all those memories and put them to paper. I travel to Dublin quiet a bit and I imagine you on those streets now , I think you will be with me in Dublin all the time now when I see the streets you were on.
As the other readers have said before me, I too was unable to put this book down, I picked it up in Dublin airport for my long flight home to JFK. While on the plane the stewardess advised me what an incredible book it was but to prepare myself for a very sad ending, I finished the book and Googled Martha also, and cannot wait to read the sequel.
I pray that Martha was granted serenity after all of the years of sickening madness. I can attest to the deplorable conditions of the 40ss school systems in Ireland, my father was beaten senseless by a male teacher literally, senseless, my grandparents were summoned to collect him from the school, unconscious -he received the whipping for standing up for his younger brother in the classroom who was being beaten.
Upon arriving home, my dad was administered another beating by his father for mouthing off to the headmaster. As a mother of 2 children I cannot imagine that anyone would allow such treatment never mind inflict it. Peace be with you Martha! Ma he sold me for a few cigarettes, is the best book i have read in a very long time. I just could not put it down. I googled to see if there was a sequel! Thanks god there is i cant wait untill September to read it! Thanks for sharing your life with us, you are a true inspiration, I hope you and Charlie found love and happiness!
Martha, i thank you for having the courage to write this book. You are all grown up now, but there will always be a special place in my heart for a little girl called Martha and her 6yr old brother Charlie. God bless you both. I would love to give you a big squeezy hug. Cany wait to read the sequel. I took the book on holiday and finished reading it in 4days I couldnt put it down.
I loved the way it was written and how Martha was really happy with things that most of us take for granted ie a warm fire,food,and smile from someone she just wanted a friend. Cant wait to read the next book. Love it! Still reading marthas book and find it so disturbing, having been born and grown up in the same era I found it very hard to understand how another human being could inflict such suffering on another person let alone a defenceless little girl. I too wanted to reach out and offer a loving hand to little Martha and to protect her from the monster thatwas jackser who was only able to beat up women and young chidren I hope that he suffered before he died.
To Marther and her siblings you deserve everything you achieve good luck peter. I could not put this book, down, I fell in love with Martha I wanted to mother her, to take her away and give her the childhood she deserved, and I wanted everyone who let her down and did her wrong to get their just rewards.
I raced through the book to get to the end to see if she would be ok in the end, after all her hardship, and now at the end I am left wondering what happened next, was she ok? God Bless you I hope you are in a very Happy place right now, my thoughts will be with you for a very long time. I am so looking forward to reading the sequal to find out what happened to her at the convent and to Charlie and her other siblings.
He came out on top and obviously Martha did in the end but they were so robbed of their childhood. Thanks once again for the best book i have ever read, and cant wait until 4th September for the next instalment. Just finished reading ma he sold me for a few cigarettes, i thought it was such a sin on martha having to go through all that, i was a very good book though , showed how hard it is to go through that kind of treatment and it is such a shame any one should go through that kind of treatment, and i think it is so amazing how you survived all that and got through it you are very strong martha, cant wait too read the next one too find out what happend too you and your siblings, i thought it was a very much shame on you and charlie and the rest, getting told to go and steal then takin the blame for jackster, i really can not put it into words what i thought about jackster, putting you through that misery, brings a tear too my eye thinkin about it, you have a very strong character martha and god bless you, x.
Can I just say, I am nearing the end to a great book and want to Say to you Martha what a Strong and Bright Child you where, the years have gone by and the past will never leave you, I know. My Heart goes out to you Martha. Can I just say my life was never as brutal as yours but I went through some tough times in my young life and just know where you are coming from?
God Bless you Martha. You recalled it so well — written as an adult, but through the eyes and senses of a child — and so strongly connected to the memories and thoughts and feelings. Thank you for writing your book, even if it was…hard to read. Martha really needs to do an interview for all her fans to find out how she is now and how she got there.
This would be so uplifting. I am so furiously angry with her mum and the scumbag Jackser. I have almost finished reading this wonderful book. What has struck me throughout the painful pages is that Martha never feels self-pity and even though she is in agonising pain she sacrifices herself again and again for her feckless mother and her poor siblings.
How could the authorities hand her back to the brutal Jackser? He had put her alone on the boat to England covered in bruises and in a terrible state. I am very keen to know how Martha and her siblings are now and feel a need to know that they came through it all.
As for Jackser I too hope that he died in agony so he knows what it feels like. I would consider it a priviledge to tell Martha that I truly hope she has peace and happiness in her life at last. I just cannot find the words to express how this book made me feel. It is the most moving book I have ever read and it was so wonderfully written.
Anyway,thanks,Martha,to have shared with us this wonderful and inspiring story,an example of great courage through adversity. So beautifully written.
So so sad. I still feel extremely tearful and hold you in my thoughts and in my heart as that little girl. I hope reading the sequel will release that little girl from misery. I was glad to read and also to see a real picture of you that you have been so successful raising 3 children and having a fulfilled career.
As many other readers I too Googled your name as soon as I finished the book to make sure you were OK. Look forward to reading about the convent and also about your siblings. God bless you and well done for coming through your horific experiences. Truly inspirational! I have just finished Ma, he sold me for a few cigarettes and am deeply moved — as everyone else seems to be. I think Marthas story must not be cast in our minds as something that happened.
But something that happens, everyday. Right now there are children suffering just as Martha did 50 years ago. Right now there are Jacksers feeding off others and Sallys not taking responsibility for their lives and their children.
Instead, lets be honest with ourselves about what many people are faced with every day and go about our lives remembering to be kind when someone is led our way.
I have just finished reading He sold me for cigarettes. I do not usually read these sort of biographies as they all seem similar. This one is an exception. What tremendous courage Martha has.
Will definitely read the sequels as I must find out what happens to her after the age of As someone else said it is a disgrace that such things continue to go on. I am roughly the same age as Martha, what a difference in our two childhoods. All of the above comments pretty much cover it for me. I am an avid reader and this is the 1st book in a long time that held me completely in thrall from start to finish. Although I wanted it to stop because the thought of a little girl being subjected to these horrendous adults left me distressed to say the least.
Martha, thankyou for sharing your story! It has made me realise so much. I am about to become a foster parent, and this reiterated the need for me to do this, I am not perfect, but no child around me would ever be left to suffer as you did. I wish I had been there for you, and I am so sorry you went through all that you did!
Blessed be Martha, live a long healthy and happy life. Your spirit rose from the pages i am an avid reader and never in all my years have i been affected by a book like this. On days i feel hard done by i think of you and feel a stab of shame i wish you love and peace be blessed with love and sunshine. Martha, I was rivetted by the account in both of your books. I am so glad that you came out the other end as intact as what you seem to be. A lesser person would have completely lost their mind.
I am really looking forward to your next instalment in your life. You are a beacon for all of those who have reached adulthood after an abusive childhood and wonder if they will ever amount to anything. I am sorry but the Catholic Church has a great deal to answer for — especially when it comes to their attitude toward to children in those kind of families — it still goes on today in some regions!!
Children do not ask to be born into any family, anywhere. They have no voice to ask for what the need in life but most of all they ALL need cherishing. No amount of food, shelter and clothing will compensate for the lack of love and nurturing. Martha — may your beloved and precious children give you joyous grandchildren and may you live long to enjoy them. Marth, I think you are a true inspiration, not for the child that came through such a horrible childhood but, for the woman that you are today.
Not only do you have the strength to live through such a horrible ordeal, you have managed to hold on to your sanity and share your story. I live my life saying that there is always, always someone that is worse off than me and I can get through my issues. You are living proof of this. Thank you for being a strong enough woman to stand up and tell your story, a strength that many of us will never have. I commend you and I thank you for sharing your story.
You are an inspiration to all…. How lucky we are to have Martha alive and well today to share this absolutely devastatingly sad story with us. I will recommend this book to everyone, but my copy I will cherish. If all of those people buy your book instead of borrowing it you will never have the need to be hungry or cold again. Dear Martha, After finishing reading your first book, I just sat up in bed hugging the book to my chest with tears rolling down my cheeks.
I feel as though my best friend has gone away and left no forwarding address. I longed to see you in the streets so that I could bring you home to a loving household, or for you to knock on my door and ask for help. I have been feeling low lately with general day to day worries, but your account of true hardship makes me realise how trivial our worries are — even illness can be coped with when we are warm.
Like everyone else I have searched in vain for some information about your life after the book — I hope with all my heart that you are now part of a loving family and feel at peace. I have just finished reading you first book and I was deeply saddened , distressed and angered to learn about your horrific childhood.
I have just finished reading Ma he sold me for a packet of cigarettes and like so many before me found it hard to put the book down. Martha i,ve just finished Ma i,m getting meself a new mammy and my god like the last one it,s really touched me thank you for sharing you story with us all you an inspiration. I, like others, found the ending to the book disappointing, I felt I needed some kind of closure, to know that you made it through those young horrendous years ok.
I cannot wait to read your next book. Again, truly inspirational. Thanks so much for sharing your story with us Martha. Am dying to know what happened to your mam and Jackser and of course all the other kiddies……………. I am so lucky to have had a wonderful loving mum and a very happy childhood. I look forward to your next book and I would love to know what happened to Charlie and if you were re united in happier circumstances. Thank you for sharing your story with me. My thoughts are with you and I send you my best wishes.
Thought reading was boring. I was going on a long flight,i toyed with the idea of buying a book,a true story I felt would be of benefit to me,I actually bought my first book-Ma,he sold me for a few cigarettes in Dublin airport,the name in itself spoke honesty and reality.
I am pleased to say,i finished the book 10 mins ago,however,some 5 months on from the day I read the first line might be an insult to most people,but it was an achievement for me. After reading the first page,I knew i was in for a long,tough journey but with the way it was written,kept me going and wanting to read on,however tough it was to take in. I felt as if you were telling ME your story,I was however,very disappointed with the end,not knowing what ever happened next to you, or how you are today,but I see there is a sequel,and needless to say it will be my next purchase,and I dont intend the read to go on for as long!
I do believe I was meant to buy that book that day in the airport. It has given me a whole new outlook on life. I can thank Martha for sharing your wit,courage,strength,and your spirit will inspire me for a long long time.
Please keep them coming,and give me some closure on your story. I want to know that you got what you deserved in life today,happiness,peace and love. I am truly delighted that you have found more strength from God knows where,to carry on,and have a family of your own.
How can people stand by and let these things happen to children there were many times while reading these two books that I found myself sobbing as I read how these children lived and then I would get so angry that people all around them knew what was happening and did nothing.
Like so many others who have read your story and fell in love with your spirit I would love to know what happened next. What happened to the other children especially Charlie. With any luck he was taken away like you were and even though you still had a crap time you survived it hopefully he did too. I hope the rest of your life has been and will continue to be wonderful with all the love and happiness you deserve.
From what she has told me though her life was somewhat privileged as a child. I only wish she could have your courage and confront her demons as you seem to have done. As for me, I was lucky. I so wished to be able to take Martha away from that life. To feed her, and clothe her and ensure she felt loved and safe. I too am desperate to know how her siblings survived, especially Charlie and also how Martha got on in the Convent. Brilliant and horrible at the same time. Martha obviously turned out well but how is a mystery.
What a gutsy girl. We go on in our own little worlds and stories like this remind us of what actually happens out there. I hope you tell us in the sequal. Thank you again.
I felt i must. The traditional print book. You can take it to bed, cuddle it, or even swank into a room with something like War And Peace by Leo Tolstoy tucked under your arm, thereby letting the world and his wife think you must be some kind of genius to read a book like that. You may not be able to read at all, but who would know? What a lark! A gold-leafed, leather-bound copy of the entire works of William Shakespeare. It was given to me when my youngest daughter was only nine years old.
She bargained for it in a charity shop, using her entire savings to buy me the collection as a birthday present. Perched in the corner of a long sofa with one leg stuck up supporting the laptop. I take my break just a few feet away in the kitchen. There I drink endless cups of tea. I used to have a cigarette or two there but, sadly, the tobacco has all gone up in smoke; I gave it up. Now I content myself by sucking on a bit of plastic in the shape of a ciggie! Not quite the same.
Writing my debut novel, Run, Lily, Run. As an author of seven autobiographies, I had to step outside myself and my own journey. Writing this novel taught me that you need discipline to rein in the imagination, hone it into one particular aspect of a life, and then let the imagination rip again! Does that make sense? For Run, Lily, Run I had to do quite a lot of research, which was a bit of a departure for me, but I enjoyed it.
A new me was born when I reached the end of that journey. I also saw the effect it had on readers. Many recognised their own hidden child lying dormant, whilst for others it awakened the fearful, helpless child lying deep within the dark labyrinths of their own minds.
Something to make them think. The Trial by Franz Kafka. This tells of how an honest, decent man is arrested without warning. It was a day like any other day, he had gone about his business, he had done nothing wrong. The Wind in the Willows — a marvellous book, with animals acting as humans. Write from the heart, it will flow much easier, because you are revealing more about yourself then even you knew. I fear for the future of the traditional book and the independent booksellers.
I wish they could group together and fight the big boys. I hope so! Seems to me people want to fantasise about the things that would terrify them in real life. A man portrayed as masterful and romantic in some books may truly be a monster when experienced in real life. Open a book and among its pages I can slip away on a magic carpet and travel the world. Real escapism! And all that without having to leave my armchair.
The magic and mystery, adventure, terror, laughter, love and death. How lovely! It has exposed me from the inside out, like looking into a mirror and seeing myself, warts and all. I seem to have absorbed a fair amount of knowledge about how people tick, which has helped me to write authentically. I have met the good, the bad, and the truly wonderful. Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Brendan Behan, sitting next to Patrick Kavanagh. I believe they hated each other; I read somewhere that Behan tormented Kavanagh. Also there would be George Orwell, smoking, coughing and spluttering. After finally getting some measure of redemption and stability in her life, she is coming to terms with her feelings about the illness of Jackser, the long-term abuser during her childhood.
Oh gawd yes! Drink, dance and spit on it. Oh my gawd, life is a bowl of cherries! How can ye get te be this happy? Yet lumping the Ma. Long initially did not want to write her story for publication.
By the s she had escaped poverty and was living a largely middle-class existence in Dublin—two young children, and a third grown-up daughter from a previous marriage. She shakes her head and starts to laugh. But there was something about self-discovery, too.
For me, there was always this wanting to escape. I had become what I thought I wanted to be, but always there was the running and moving away. What was I?
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