Born Free

Shortlisted for the Whitbread Award: "this bleak tale" of a month in the life of a family struggling with addiction "is a work of considerable force" (The Scotsman, UK).

“The writing is of a high quality and puts across a powerful sense of claustrophobia and quiet desperation.”  -  The Observer

Punchy, sharp-witted and acutely observed, Born Free tells the story of an ordinary family living in Edinburgh, Scotland, and dealing with their troubles in an all-too-ordinary way: each member is trying to escape life - and each other - through his or her drug of choice, whether it's alcohol, sex, Prozac, or the Internet.  The interactions between parents Angie and Vic, and their teenage children Jake and Joni, reveal a hellish cocktail of mid-life crises and adolescent angst; the savagery of sibling rivalry; the waking nightmare of a marriage gone cold - and the unbridgeable, infernal chasm between the generations. It's a story of everyday life.

“Born Free exhibits a maturity that suggests Hird has emerged from the coat-tails of her peers and has ceased to play the literary wee sister - she manages to carry things off with aplomb - Hird’s portrayal of a woman in alcoholic free-fall is uncomfortably accurate - shifts with ease from the screamingly funny to the gut-wrenching - thought-provoking and entertaining.”  -  The Scotsman