Paula Spencer

Ten years on from The Woman Who Walked into Doors, Roddy Doyle returns to one of his greatest characters, Paula SpencerWhen we first met Paula Spencer -in THE WOMAN WHO WALKED INTO DOORS -she was thirty-nine, recently widowed, an alcoholic struggling to hold her family together.PAULA SPENCER begins on the eve of Paula's forty-ninth birthday. She hasn't had a drink for four months and five days. Her youngest children, Jack and Leanne, are still living with her. They're grand kids, but she worries about Leanne.Paula still works as a cleaner, but all the others doing the job now seem to come from Eastern Europe, and the checkout girls in the supermarket are Nigerian. You can get a cappuccino in the cafe, and her sister Carmel is thinking of buying a holiday home in Bulgaria. Paula's got four grandchildren now; two of them are called Marcus and Sapphire.Reviewing THE WOMAN WHO WALKED INTO DOORS, Mary Gordon wrote- 'It is the triumph of this novel that Mr Doyle -entirely without condescension -shows the inner life of this battered house-cleaner to be the same stuff as that of the heroes of the great novels of Europe.' Her words hold true for this new novel. Paula Spencer is brave, tenacious and very funny. The novel that bears her name is another triumph for Roddy Doyle.

“The author's sentences reflect the tiny triumphs that mark Paula's life as she gets through each day without alcohol. They work particularly well on audio and the Irish narrator brings the listener right into the minutiae of Paula's life as she struggles to regain all she has lost, most poignantly, the love of her alienated children.”

Observer
Ger Ryan reads Roddy Doyle's Paula Spencer with absolute conviction...and if you think you are in for a depressing listen, think again. Brave and funny, Paula looks at life with humour and compassion...it all makes for splendid listening. Daily Express
Doyle gets right inside the head of this 21st-century Dubliner in a stream of consciousness that is by turns moving, funny and just a little bit tedious - a real person, in other words. Ger Ryan gives compelling voice to the Dublin vernacular and for the duration of the CDs Paula becomes a presence in your life. Sunday Times
If you like Paula Spencer, you'll love this full-on reading by Ger Ryan. I loved every minute and look forward to the next installment. -- Arminta Wallace Irish Times

Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958. He is the author of seven acclaimed novels and Rory & Ita, a memoir about his parents. He won the Booker Prize in 1993 for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.Reader BiographyGer Ryan is a native of Dublin. She began her career in theatre in 1985 and has since had many roles both on television and in feature films, including The Commitments and The Van. She read The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, the prequel to Paula Spencer, for Random House Audiobooks and also played Paula Spencer in Roddy Doyle's acclaimed series Family for the BBC.

When we first met Paula Spencer - in The Woman Who Walked into Doors - she was thirty-nine, recently widowed, an alcoholic struggling to hold her family together. Paula Spencer begins on the eve of Paula's forty-eighth birthday. She hasn't had a drink for four months and five days. Her youngest children, Jack and Leanne, are still living with her. They're grand kids, but she worries about Leanne. Paula still works as a cleaner, but all the others doing the job now seem to come from Eastern Europe, and the checkout girls in the supermarket are Nigerian. You can get a cappuccino in the caf, and her sister Carmel is thinking of buying a holiday home in Bulgaria. Paula's got four grandchildren now; two of them are called Marcus and Sapphire. Reviewing The Woman Who Walked into Doors, Mary Gordon wrote: 'It is the triumph of this novel that Mr Doyle - entirely without condescension - shows the inner life of this battered house-cleaner to be the same stuff as that of the heroes of the great novels of Europe.' Her words hold true for this new novel. Paula Spencer is brave, tenacious and very funny. The novel that bears her name is another triumph for Roddy Doyle. Paula Spencer (C) Roddy Doyle 2006 Published in hardback by Jonathan Cape Unabridged Produced by Stuart Owen (P) Random House Audiobooks 2006 Ger Ryan is a native of Dublin. She began her career in theatre in 1985 and has since had many roles both on television and in feature films, including The Commitments and The Van . She read The Woman Who Walked Into Doors , the prequel to Paula Spencer , for Random House Audiobooks and also played Paula Spencer in Roddy Doyle's acclaimed series Family for the BBC.

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