Customer Reviews
Excellent Book - well worth a read - By: , 01 Feb 2004 
I bought this book following a review in a magazine. it doesn't disapoint. well worth a read.
You May Already Be A Winner - By: takingadayoff, 26 Jan 2004 Whenever I read about how heartwarming & inspirational a book is, I just want to gag. So that isn't what drew me to this book. It was the contest angle that hooked me. But I ended up fallling for the whole darned package.
The mother of ten who has a brain & uses it, the kids who are struggling for individuality in a crowded house, the alcoholic father who can't support his family, the weird menagerie of cats & birds -- this story just gets at you from every direction.
The writing is straightforward & engaging without being maudlin. There is no self-pity here (except for the father); the whole family just gets on with their lives, one near-disaster after another. The contest theme is terrific, it captures the time (1950s & 1960s) perfectly.
I bought an old beat-up copy to read, but now I'll have to buy a nicer copy so that I can re-read it.
Truely inspirational - By: CaptFishy, 19 Sep 2003 
A very heart warming tale of a mother using her ingenuity to solve the problem of raising a large family on very limited income. Despite disfunctional elements within the home, the story is told with warm affection & humour by one of the family's daughters. A good read for anyone, but particularly those who like to enter competitions & "never win anything".
One for the "compers" bookshelf - definately!! - By: Irene Howson, 06 Mar 2003 Being a comper I've read them alll - "how to do this" & "how to do that", alll in the efforts of winning those elusive prizes on offer. But this book is different, & a joy to read. It won't teach you anything you didn't already know about the world of competitions, but it will make you smile, & realise that what "compers" do today is nothing new. In the 1950's people were entering, winning (and losing) competitions. This book follows the trials & triumphs of one resiliant lady. Humour is running through each page with a whimsical but heart-felt slant. The hippopotamus jingle alone, is worth the price.
A Prize-winning Book! (Or it should be...) - By: , 29 Jan 2003 This biography reads like a novel. It tells the story of Terry Ryan's mother Evelyn, who throughout the 1950s & 60s, kept her family from financial ruin through her talent for winning word-play competitions of the '25 words or less' variety. The 'Defiance' of the title is the name of the town they lived in, but it equallly describes Evelyn's attitude to life: she fought back after numerous rejections to scoop some of the biggest prizes of the era- despite having ten kids to raise, & an alcoholic husband! Truly inspirational.
