Betty MacDonald – författare

The beloved memoirist recounts the unexpected charms and trials of family life on an island in the Puget Sound in this delightfully witty memoir.Betty MacDonald first regaled readers with tales of her floundering chicken farm in her 1945 memoir, The Egg and I. As she continued to share her “painfully, barkingly funny” stories of divorce, motherhood, tuberculosis, and other light subjects, MacDonald established herself as one of the great chroniclers of 20th century life in the Pacific Northwest (The Guardian, UK).In Onions in the Stew, MacDonald’s fourth and final memoir, she recounts the twelve years she and her family spent on the rough-and-tumble shores of Vashon Island in the Puget Sound, just a ferry ride away from Seattle. Writing in her signature style—“the tongue is still sharp for a ludicrous situation, a personality quirk and a self-turned jibe”—she tells of making a home despite terrible winters, perilous commutes to the mainland, less-than-loveable neighbors, and two daughters undergoing—yet somehow ultimately surviving—adolescence (Kirkus, starred review).

The author of The Egg and I continues her hilariously candid memoir series as she enters the job market at the worst possible time—the Great Depression.“The best thing about the Depression was the way it reunited our family and gave my sister Mary a real opportunity to prove that anybody can do anything, especially Betty.” So begins Betty MacDonald’s singular chronicle of trying to make ends meet amid the worst economic downturn in American history.After surviving both the failed chicken farm - and marriage - immortalized in The Egg and I, Betty MacDonald returns to live with her mother and desperately searches to find a job to support her two young daughters. With the help of her older sister Mary, Anybody Can Do Anything recounts her failed, and often hilarious, attempts to find work during the Great Depression.

A pre-WW2 American humorist contracts TB and “writes about her seclusion in a way that is painfully, barkingly funny” (Lissa Evans, The Guardian).“Getting tuberculosis in the middle of your life is like starting downtown to do a lot of urgent errands and being hit by a bus. When you regain consciousness you remember nothing about the urgent errands. You can’t even remember where you were going.”Thus begins Betty MacDonald’s memoir of her year in a sanatorium just outside Seattle battling the “White Plague.” MacDonald uses her offbeat humor to make the most of her time in the TB sanatorium—making all of us laugh in the process.“Improbably funny. . . equally remarkable.” ―Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Monthly“Can you imagine writing a whole book about being forbidden to do anything other than lie in bed? But Betty does, and she somehow makes it a riveting chronicle.” ―Lory Widmer Hess, Emerald City Book Review“An appetizing, well-seasoned feast. MacDonald’s sharp, witty observations as she spends almost a year in The Pines Clinic, outside of Seattle, are perfectly pitched . . . with a huge dollop of idiosyncratic humour . . . MacDonald is an impressive and engaging storyteller.” ―Jules Morgan, The Lancet

"Getting tuberculosis in the middle of your life is like starting downtown to do a lot of urgent errands and being hit by a bus. When you regain consciousness you remember nothing about the urgent errands. You can't even remember where you were going." Thus begins Betty MacDonald's memoir of her year in a sanatorium just outside Seattle battling the "White Plague." MacDonald uses her offbeat humor to make the most of her time in the TB sanatorium—making all of us laugh in the process.

"For twelve years we MacDonalds have been living on an island in Puget Sound. There is no getting away from it, life on an island is different from life in the St. Francis Hotel but you can get used to it, can even grow to like it. 'C'est la guerre,' we used to say looking wistfully toward the lights of the big comfortable warm city just across the way. Now, as November (or July) settles around the house like a wet sponge, we say placidly to each other, 'I love it here. I wouldn't live anywhere else.'" Betty MacDonald's final memoir, Onions in the Stew recounts her second attempt at farm-living, this time on Washington's then-remote Vashon Island along with her second husband, Don MacDonald, and her two teenage daughters.

'Big snowflakes fluttered slowly through the air like white feathers and made all of Heavenly Valley smooth and white and quiet and beautiful' So here we are on Christmas Eve, locked up in rotten Mrs Monday's boarding house with no presents and no Christmas dinner, while all the other children have gone home for the holidays. I'm Nancy, by the way, and this is my sister Plum. Luckily, we're both pretty good at making up stories about the adventures and pretty dresses that we'd like to have, and that helps us put up with Mrs Monday and her awful niece Marybelle. But one day, we're going to escape, and maybe we'll find a nice home and a family all of our own. Wouldn't that be just wonderful?Includes exclusive material: In ‘The Backstory’ you can take the quiz and find out why Nancy and Plum is Jacqueline Wilson's favourite children's book!Vintage Children’s Classics is a twenty-first century classics list aimed at 8-12 year olds and the adults in their lives. Discover timeless favourites from The Jungle Book and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to modern classics such as The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.