SHORTLISTED FOR TWO IRISH BOOK AWARDSSomething they dont tell you about getting older is that you fall. Oh you hear about it in passing of course She had a fall poor thing. Falling is not something you ever think about as a younger woman. You think about falling in love . . .At 20 Londoner Ann Ingle fell madly in love with an Irish fellow she met on holiday in Cornwall. At the church to arrange their shotgun wedding she discovered that he hadnt even told her his real name.Sixtyodd years later Ann looks back on that first glorious fall and in a series of essays considers what she has learned from the life that followed bringing eight children into the world their fathers years of mental illness and tragic death at 40 being a cashstrapped single mother in 1980s Dublin coming into her own in her middle years going to college working and writing and continuing to evolve and learn into her ninth decade even as she accepts the realities of being old.Candid about everything that matters love sex heartbreak money class religion mental health rearing children and letting them go reading and writing ageing OpenHearted is a compelling story about living life in a spirit of curiosity and delight and with a willingness to look for good in others.By some distance the most courageous most poignant most lifeaffirming memoir Ive read in the last twenty years and more Paul HowardGenuinely inspirational. I LOVE ANN INGLE Marian KeyesWhat a beautiful openhearted at times brokenhearted memoir ... honest funny searingly direct a wonderful voice ... remarkable Joe DuffyReally beautiful. Searingly honest astonishingly frank and very very funny Maia Dunphy