''Vivid, bawdy and bitter'' THE TIMES

''A first-rate first novel . . . pungent, raunchy dialogue . . . passages of fine understated wit'' IVAN GOLD, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

Pat Barker's first novel shows the women of Union Street, young and old, meeting the harsh challenges of poverty and survival in a precarious world.

There's Kelly, at eleven, neglected and independent, dealing with a squalid rape; Dinah, knocking on sixty and still on the game; Joanne, not yet twenty, not yet married and already pregnant. Old Alice is welcoming her impending death whilst Muriel helplessly watches the decline of her stoical husband.

And linking them all, watching over them all, mother to half the street, is fiery, indomitable Iris.