by Ann Leary
Acknowledgments
First, Denis and I are forever indebted to University College Hospital, London. Without the professional expertise and compassionate care provided by the entire staff, this book might have had a very different ending. In particular, I’d like to thank Mae Nugent, Dr. John Wyatt, Dr. Ann Stewart, Jan Townsend, Mr. Siddle, and all the others whose names I’ve forgotten but whose kind hearts will always be remembered.
Other Brits and Yanks who were there for us then: Jo Andrews, Heather and Bill Lowden, David Baddiel, Steve and Judy Howe, Meg Seminara, Bill Lembeck, Lindsey Brown, Kristin Johnson, Tony V., Betsy Hilton, Nora Leary, Juliana Nash, Jennifer Blaikie, Ann Marie and Neil Coleman, and John Thoday.
And those who saw me through the year of writing this book: Paula Gallagher, Paul Healy, Susan Katzenberg, Wendy Burden, Lisa Hedley, Jen Carolan, Donna Zehring, Marc Morgan, my precious children—Jack and Devin, who ate macaroni and cheese three times a week—my agent, Henry Dunow, and my truly remarkable editor, Trish Grader, who helped me make sense of it all.
Very special thanks to my dear friend, the author Heather King, who not only saved my letters from London but offered me lots of encouragement, guidance, and many laughs over the years.
And finally, without the encouragement of Denis Leary I would never in a million years have written one single word once I finished college. It was only his insistence on referring to me as a writer that shamed me into actually writing something. For this and so many, many other things, I offer my loving gratitude.
About the Author
ANNE LEMBECK LEARY has written for television and film. She is married to actor Denis Leary. They have two children, including a now healthy and hearty teenaged Jack, and live on a farm in Connecticut.
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PRAISE FOR
An Innocent, a Broad
“In her true-life tale of first-time pregnancy gone horribly awry, Leary neither sugarcoats her story nor plays martyr. It’s just the facts, straightforward and satisfying.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Equal parts heartfelt and humorous.”
—People
“Witty, engaging. … A poignant story with sprinklings of good old American neuroticism.”
—Elle
“If the pun of the title doesn’t get you, the first page will. A devastatingly funny and poignant memoir.”
—Edmonton Journal
“In a down-to-earth and never self-pitying manner, [Leary] recounts how she survived the ordeal and managed to laugh along the way. An entertaining, if occasionally dry, tale of a life-altering event.”
—Library Journal
“Ann Leary’s account of her young family’s triumph over adversity is fresh, heartfelt, and hilarious. It’s like spending quality alone time with your smartest, funniest friend and learning there’s even more to admire. What a broad, what a mom—what a writer. I loved this book.”
—Michael J. Fox
“Funny, irreverent, witty, and wise, An Innocent, a Broad is a story about the fragility of new motherhood and how one woman rises to the occasion big-time. Ann Leary takes no prisoners—least of all herself—in this compulsively readable book.”
—Dani Shapiro
“I really wanted my second book to be sharp and funny and snide and soulful and brave and heartbreaking and true. Unfortunately, that bitch Ann Leary wrote it first. I’d hate her guts except that I want to be her best friend.”
—Cynthia Kaplan, author of Why I’m Like This
“An Innocent, a Broad is always hilarious, often profound, and belongs on a special shelf next to David Sedaris’s Me Talk Pretty One Day and, yes, even Mark Twain’s Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.”
—Ben Sherwood, author of The Man Who Ate the 747
“Uplifting, heart-cheering, and in the most warm and human way—very funny … a book that made me laugh until I snorted on one page, only to have me choking up on the next.”
—Christina Barolomeo, author of
The Side of the Angels and Cupid and Diana
Copyright
A hardcover edition of this book was published in 2004 by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
AN INNOCENT, A BROAD. Copyright © 2004 by Ann Leary.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © JULY 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-03237-9
First Perennial edition published 2005.
The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover edition as follows:
Leary, Ann.
An innocent, a broad /Ann Leary.—1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-06-052723-4
1. Leary, Denis. 2. Leary, Ann. 3. Entertainers—United States—Biography. 4. Entertainers’ spouses—United States—Biography. I. Title.
PN2287.L289667L43 2004
791’.092—dc21
[B] 2003051058
ISBN 0-06-052724-2 (pbk.)
05 06 07 08 09 /RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Table of Contents
Part One - Prom
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Part Two - Special Care
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Part Three - The Ugly American
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Part Four - Auld Reekie
Twenty
Twenty-One
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Praise for An Innocent, a Broad
Copyright
About the Publisher
