Delphine Jones Takes a Chance

A heartening and life-affirming book about a single mother learning to make a bigger life, and the power of human connection to grow our worlds.

Delphine Jones’ world is about to get much bigger…if only she’d let it.

Devoted single mother Delphine Jones is an expert at putting her head down and moving through life one day at a time. Since getting pregnant at sixteen, her circle has only ever included her now 11-year-old daughter and best friend, Em, and her complicated father whom they live with. But when an opportunity for her to finish school presents itself, Delphine finally does something she hasn’t done in years: she takes a chance on herself. Sometimes all it takes is one chance.
 
As Delphine rediscovers her passions and her belief in herself, her circle expands to include an Oscar-winning actress turned teacher, an Eritrean couple running a local café-cum-jazz club, an elderly French widow looking to converse, and a handsome musician who awakens something in Delphine that she thought had been long buried. But as Delphine’s eyes and heart start to open, she must also face questions she’s stonewalled for more than a decade, questions about Em’s father. Is she brave enough?  

Beth Morrey's work has been published in The May Anthology of Oxford and Cambridge Poetry and shortlisted for the Grazia Orange First Chapter competition. She is the author of The Love Story of Missy Carmichael. She lives in London with her family and dog.