Journalist Deborah Orr was born and bred in the Scottish steel town of Motherwell, in the west of Scotland.

Growing up the product of a mixed marriage, with an English mother and a Scottish father, she was often a child on the edge of her working class community, a 'weird child', who found solace in books, nature and in her mother's company.

But her mother's shadow was long and often controlling - Deborah was not always mothered well.

In her powerful and poignant memoir, she explores the effects of her strict parenting and her own strong desire for independence and autonomy which led her to flee her roots, first to St Andrews University, with mixed results, and then to her hugely successful career as a journalist and writer in London.

Deborah also paints a vivid portrait of the place and the community around the steel works of Ravenscraig - the hub of her world in the sixties and seventies.

Omnibus of five parts abridged by Julian Wilkinson.

Read by Siobhan Redmond.

Producers:: Karen Holden & Di Speirs

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2020. Show less