Chopsy
Chopsy is a memoir like no other – a gut-wrenchingly powerful, yet frequently funny account of a life spent defying the prejudice and inequality faced by working-class women.
Maya Jordan’s ambition and resilience was born in the library and nourished by the Open University – through poverty, early motherhood, precarious housing, caring responsibilities and chronic disability – to a point where she finally seized her right to write.
'Funny as hell and full of fight. Maya’s voice is the real deal' Daisy May Cooper
'A curse on being ordinary! Wrong is not her name. Her name is Maya Jordan. She is a noisy woman and we should fear her' Michael Sheen
Book details
- Format
- Paperback
- ISBN
- 9780715656136
- Published
- 26 February 2026
- Pages
- 320
- Duration
- Dimensions
- 129 x 198 mm
- Genre
- Memoir and Biography
- Imprint
- September
Reviews
'Written with unflinching honesty, expansive humour and razor-sharp insight. A call to see and be seen, this is a memoir that will stay with me for a long time'
'This book is a reminder that excellence is everywhere opportunity it not, women are brilliant and Maya is just another example of a working-class woman who has brains, balls and the bolshiness bred into our amazing communities. I loved this book, a voice for all women who were feel unseen, unheard. This book is unfiltered and unflinchingly beautiful. Thank you for making me feel less alone, from one chopsy woman to another, you inspire me to keep fighting. This book reminds us we are who are BECAUSE of where we come from not in spite of where we are from!'
'If you’ve ever cringed at yet another wildly inaccurate representation of your working-class childhood, if your body doesn’t conform to the absurd standards that social media demands of our health and ability – especially as we age, if you know in your very bones that we do not live in a meritocracy now and we never have, and if love and grief and despair and possibility all make sense to you – then you want to read this'
'Refusing to be defined by others, Chopsy reclaims the right to tell our own stories, in our own words and on our own terms. Inclusive, insightful and inspiring, it embraces, challenges, and refuses to look away'
'Funny and powerful'
'A triumphant success story about clearing a path for yourself and finding the freedom, words, and perhaps courage in mid-life to put pen to paper'
'Maya Jordan just doesn’t know her place… thank heaven for that. This book is bloody marvellous! A story for all of us "difficult" women. So much resonates with the lives of the women I’ve known and worked with, and my own too'
'Thank god for Maya Jordan. And thank god for this book'
