by and for MD

Finally Meeting Mum by Mike Daligan is a tome that lifts the spirits and shows you how it is possible to come to terms with whatever life throws at you. This delightful book is very hard to categorise. It starts off with a poem – a beautiful paean to mothers everywhere and in particular of course to Mike’s own mum. When you start reading it, you begin to realise it is partly autobiography, which for me makes it all the more interesting. The details are so well drawn and vivid. Maybe I realised this earlier than most as I know Mike Daligan, and I have read his other books.
But I’m not writing this because of that. It is a good read in itself. Written as a sort of ghost story, I was absolutely taken in at first by the very magical realism of it all. Part fiction, part based on unrealised fact, it was utterly emotionally gripping and ultimately very satisfying. Mike’s imagination and erudition work very well in tandem here – everything is researched thoroughly and then woven into his poignant world of imagined life and death, the afterlife and the present reality, full of humour and wonder, and delight in just being.
I highly recommend it.