A Bit of a Stretch & Motherwell: A Girlhood 2 Books Collection Set - Non Fiction - Mixed Format

Titles in This Set
A Bit of a Stretch: The Diaries of a Prisoner by Chris Atkins
Motherwell: A Girlhood by Deborah Orr

Condition: New
Format: Mixed Format (Paperback & Hardback)
ISBN: 9781838950170 (A Bit of a Stretch, Paperback) / 9781474611459 (Motherwell, Hardback)
Publisher: Atlantic Books / Weidenfeld & Nicolson (W&N)
Age Range: Adult

Overview
This two-book collection brings together a pair of acclaimed memoirs about confinement of very different kinds. Chris Atkins' A Bit of a Stretch is a darkly funny, unflinching diary of life inside HMP Wandsworth, while Deborah Orr's Motherwell: A Girlhood is a luminous account of growing up in a Scottish steel town under the shadow of a complicated mother. Together they offer powerful true-life storytelling, sharp social observation, and moving personal history in one bookshelf-worthy set.

About the Books
Documentary-maker Chris Atkins turns the lens on himself in A Bit of a Stretch, chronicling the year he spent in HMP Wandsworth after a financing scheme for one of his films went wrong. He records the everyday absurdities and injustices of the British prison system with journalistic precision and dark, disarming humour, from the strange economics of prison life to the shockingly casual availability of drugs compared with basic medication. It became a Sunday Times bestseller, praised for exposing a system in crisis.

Deborah Orr's Motherwell: A Girlhood, published shortly before her death in 2019, is an equally candid but very different memoir. Orr grew up in the steel town of Motherwell in the 1970s, in a house dominated by her fierce, complicated mother Win. Leaving at almost eighteen for university became a decision that shaped the rest of her life, fuelling years of guilt, love and resentment. Written with the wit and intelligence that made Orr one of Britain's most admired columnists, it is a tender, unsentimental portrait of family, class and the pull of home.

Key Benefits

• Two celebrated memoirs in one great-value set
• Explores confinement from two angles: prison walls and family ties
• Written by two respected British writers and journalists
• Brand new copies, ideal for gifting to memoir and true-life readers
• Perfect for book clubs and fans of contemporary social nonfiction
• A thoughtful addition to any adult memoir or biography collection

About the Authors
Chris Atkins is a British documentary-maker and journalist whose films include Taking Liberties and Starsuckers. He was imprisoned in 2016 after a tax scheme used to fund one of his documentaries collapsed, an experience that inspired A Bit of a Stretch. Deborah Orr (1962–2019) was one of Britain's most celebrated newspaper columnists, writing for The Guardian and The Independent. Motherwell: A Girlhood, her only book, was completed shortly before her death and published to critical acclaim.

Why You'll Love This Memoir Collection
Honest, sharply observed and unafraid of difficult truths, these two memoirs pair brilliantly, offering a compelling look at institutions, families, and different ways of understanding freedom.

Please Note: Cover design may vary slightly from the image shown; you will receive the current UK edition with UK ISBN as listed.