Chris Sheedy, Director, The Hard Word

Many come to me to discuss writing a book and my response to each is typically glib. Imagining writing a book is easy, I tell them. But actually, writing a book, taking that seemingly endless and often painful journey from first word to last, is far more difficult than you could ever imagine, I say. Then finding an agent, an editor, a publisher etc who will treat your work with respect … well, that’s an entirely new mountain to climb. Only the very toughest make it. That’s what I told Marcia.

Of course, at the time I didn’t know her full story. Now I do. And now I understand how she developed the mental toughness to put together this hard-hitting, autobiographical masterpiece. This is hip-hop’s literary equivalent, a stark, no-holds-barred story of courage, perseverance, tenacity and desperation that is as real as it gets. Of course she finished it. Nothing stops Marcia, as you’ll discover amongst these pages.

Don’t expect teddy bears or ponies, princesses or ballerinas. Every Shitty Thing is one woman’s story of survival in what often amounts to suburban hell. It is a story to which we can all, in one way or another, relate. It is deeply and intensely personal and real, and contains lessons for every reader. Don’t miss out.