Froman Observer columnist and Twitter sensation, the story of a boy growing up in a family bonded by loss, love and mockery, set against the backdrop of Northern Ireland in the 1990s.

'An irrepressibly funny and poignant memoir of family life after bereavement' TLS

Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? is Seamas O'Reilly's memoir of growing up as one of eleven children in rural Northern Ireland in the 1990s after the death of their mother. He delves into his family - his pleasingly eccentric, reticent but deeply loving father; his rambunctious siblings, intent on enforcing a byzantine age-based hierarchy; and the numerous bewildering friends, relations and neighbours who blew in and out to 'help'.

'The most honest, hilarious, incisive and bawl-your-eyes-out sad things I've ever read. Family, grief, religion, politics - it's all there and it's gloriously written. If you need a lift and a good cry, this will do it' Stylist

'A fantastic, freewheeling, funny exploration of the most dreadful time in this Northern Irish family's life, from their dad's dogged determination to keep them going to the reality of growing up as a Catholic in a majority Protestant society' Financial Times

THE IRISH TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER

AN POST BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR

'Gorgeous' Pandora Sykes

'A rare and beautiful book' Marian Keyes

'Tender, sad and side-splittingly funny' Annie MacManus

'A delight' Dara Ó Briain

Séamas O'Reilly's mother died when he was five, leaving him, his ten brothers and sisters and their beloved father in their sprawling bungalow in rural Derry. It was the 1990s; the Troubles were a background rumble (most of the time), and Séamas at that point was more preoccupied with dinosaurs, Star Wars and the actual location of heaven than the political climate.

Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? is a book about a family of argumentative, loud, musical, sarcastic, grief-stricken siblings, shepherded into adulthood by a man whose foibles and reticence were matched only by his love for his children and his determination that they would flourish. It is the moving, often amusing and completely unsentimental story of a boy growing up in a family bonded by love, loss and fairly relentless mockery.

'A heartfelt tribute to an alarmingly large family held together by a quietly heroic father' Arthur Mathews, co-creator of Father Ted and Toast of London

'Not only hilarious, tender, absurd, delightful and charming, but written with such skill as to render it unforgettable' Nina Stibbe