FAQ for
Angela's Ashes (1999) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for Angela's Ashes can be found here.

Yes. Angela's Ashes is based on a 1996 memoir by Irish-American author Frank McCourt. The book was adapted for the movie by Australian screenwriter Laura Jones. The book was followed by two more books, 'Tis (1999), which picks up where Angela's Ashes ends and details his new life as an American immigrant, and Teacher Man (2005), which focuses on the challenges of being a teacher.

Angela McCourt is Frank McCourt's mother. Born in Limerick, Ireland, Angela Sheehan marries Malachy McCourt from northern Ireland while they are living in New York, where Frank is born. When Frank was four years old, the family returned to Limerick. Frank's memoir focuses on how the family, headed by mother Angela (his father was an alcoholic), was forced to survive by begging, stealing, charity, and living on the dole.

In an interview, Frank McCourt explained that the book was called Angela's Ashes because the two books, Angela's Ashes and 'Tis, were supposed to be one book. As it worked out, however, they were split into two books, with Angela's Ashes ending with the word 'Tis' and 'Tis ending with Angela's ashes being scattered. Frank has said her ashes went to the ancient cemetary in Ireland where all her ancestors were buried and also to Queens, NY to her baby daughter's grave. Viewers of the movie have commented that, to them, the ashes may refer to all the Woodbines smoked by Angela, the ashes in the fireplace where she stared on the nights that the family had no food, or, more symbolically, to her children, including Frank McCourt, who are the "ashes" that Angela left behind her.

Consumption is an older name for tuberculosis.