"Thatcherite Britain is not a particularly advantageous time to be born. The latest in a long line of Aberdeen fishwives, Janie Ryan is just a few days old when a blazing row lands her mother in a local women's shelter. From there it's on to a dodgy council flat and a succession of unsuitable men, including the hard-drinking, drug-dealing, ice-cream-buying Tony Hogan. Narrated by Janie from her less than idyllic birth, Tony Hogan bought me an ice-cream float before he stole my Ma is the arrestingly original story of an irrepressible heroine, the absurdities of the 1980s, and the fierce bonds that tie families together, no matter what"--Back cover.