Broken Biscuits (TPB - OM) - Softcover

Agnes is senile; her granddaughter Jodie is an oddball. But how did they get that way? In a hurtling plot that moves between Jodie's life going forwards and Agnes' life going backwards, welcome to the dark, hilarious world of the mad.

Agnes is so far gone that she's been carted off and institutionalised. She was a liability with her steaming hot flat, squashed flies and lifetime collection of sugar lumps and toenail clippings. As her memories play back - marriages, wars, affairs and an Edinburgh childhood with seven brothers and sisters - there are plenty of things in her life that she really should say sorry for.

Jodie's got her own problems - she's eccentric, the sort of person that people cross the road to avoid. With advice from Dr Hassani and support worker June, she tries really hard to get care in the community to work and to make new friends. Trouble is she just doesn't fit in. And now she's decided to spring Agnes from the old people's home with the help of willing accomplice Owen - a moody yo-yo himself.

Funny, grim yet ultimately uplifting, this is a dark saga of family history and secrets, and a seaside love story of two misfits who find love in a hostile world.