Marathon Mum

'It's the finish line, not the finish time.' In the late 80s, our Rachel was having a boss time as a podium dancer at the Pleasuredrome, Birkenhead. Fast forward several years and she's married, with the kids she's always dreamed of, but the body she's always dreaded. To make things worse, her husband Trevor begins to show his true controlling colours and Rachel blames herself, spiralling into depression. Until she discovers running. Buzzing from her epiphany, the 'Forrest Gump of the Mersey' is derided by Trevor, but catches the attention of some local women, all struggling and vulnerable in their own ways. These disparate women persuade Rachel to lead them in a running club, to get a bit of whatever she's on, where they all discover more than the mere chance to shed a few pounds in this burgeoning sisterhood. Dealing with the dark and many faces of depression with a refreshing lightness of touch unique to this working-class woman from the Wirral, Marathon Mum is an uplifting story of the healing to be found in community, and the corners we can turn when we push ourselves across the line. AUTHORS: Rachel Brown was born in Bromborough and grew up in Spital, Bebington on the Wirral Peninsula. Blessed with a happy childhood and close family, she attended Stanton Road Primary School and Bebington Secondary School For Girls before becoming a professional dancer, working with dance troupes all over the world for seven years. Rachel now lives back in Bromborough with her three children Sam, Ben and Harriet. She is happily partnered to Brian McCann. Warren FitzGerald was born in 1973 in Hertfordshire. He is an author and screenwriter. His debut novel The Go-Away Bird won an Amazon Rising Stars Award, was longlisted for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award and was Waterstones' Book of the Month in October 2011. His first non-fiction book All in the Same Boat (published in 2016), has been optioned for the screen with Warren himself co-writing the screenplay adaptation. Breaking Dad (a memoir written in collaboration with the subject James Lubbock) was published in 2019. It too has been optioned for the screen.