A DUBLIN Memoir - 47 Roses, Peter Sheridan

Brand New First Edition Hardback, 208 unmarked pages. Can post.
All Da knew was warmth and summer, swimming in the sea and being the first to take the plunge when the rest of us stood shivering on the rocks. Soup. Only word he ever used to describe the sea. He warmed it up for us. You could see the excited bubbles ripple out from his hairy chest, he turned the sea into a heated swimming pool... The sea around Ireland would suffer with Da gone. He kept it warm year in and year out. It was impossible to believe he was going cold and I did believe it but only in a remote sort of way, in the same way that I believed Australia existed."
When Peter Sheridan's father died unexpectedly, the loss devastated his close-knit family, who swiftly returned to Dublin to ease their mother's grief and give their father a rousing send-off.
But it soon became apparent that an awkward situation would have to be resolved. For over forty-seven years, Peter's father had maintained a relationship - mainly on paper - with another woman, Doris. She first met him in the 1940s and determinedly kept up a correspondence that would span five decades, secretly hoping against hope that eventually Peter's father would be hers. Doris would need to be told about the death of her old friend.

Peter Sheridan has written a moving account of his parents' relationship, from their first encounter over a poker game in a Dundalk canteen to their final, happy days together in retirement. But he also tackles the difficult subject of Doris, a shadowy partner in their marriage, and the thorn in his mother's side. Forty- Seven Roses is a compelling memoir that deals with themes of everlasting love, family pride and the nature of obsession.