HarperCollins recently admitted to a 31 per cent increase in annual profits thanks to 'mis-lit'.īut as well as starting a publishing phenomenon, McCourt's searing bestseller Angela's Ashes, which has sold some five million copies, also began a terrible feud. These tales of childhood woe have become highly lucrative.Ĭalled 'inspirational memoirs' by publishers, 'mis-lit' now accounts for nine per cent of the British book market, shifting 1.9 million copies a year and generating £24 million of revenue. Dozens have followed him - so much so that they are now generically called 'mis-lit'. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.'Īnd so Frank McCourt, who died on Sunday aged 78 after a battle with skin cancer, launched a new literary genre: the misery memoir. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. 'When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. Rarely has a book had such a compelling opening line. Angela's Ashes: The memoir won the Pulitzer Prize - but was it filled with falsehoods?
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