Dagbøker og memoarer

'My favourite person on the politics of parenthood' Pandora Sykes'Exhilarating, infuriating, urgent and human' Daisy Buchanan'A blazing, brilliant read ... compassionate, convincing, funny!' Amy Liptrot'Honest, unflinching and necessary' Sara Pascoe'Funny and brisk ... urgent and incisive' Rob Delaney'A timely and important book' Clover StroudIt's time to share the motherload.A memoir culminating in a manifesto, Holding the Baby sets out to understand why we still treat early parenthood as an individual slog rather than a shared cultural responsibility. Tracing her own journey to the nadir of sleeplessness via social retreat and murderous rage, Frizzell draws on the latest research to explore:- What effect does parenting have on your career?- How can we make childcare affordable and fit for purpose?- If parenting is so hard, why does anyone ever do it more than once?Funny, reassuring and radically ambitious, Holding the Baby sheds light on the ways in which we fail new parents, and offers a rallying crying that we fight for a better alternative.

Intimate, impassioned and full of humour, PINCH ME follows art historian Francesca Ramsay's far-reaching journey in search of answers to one of life's most complex and essential questions: What does it mean to feel real?

Once told 'fit only for climbing trees' by his father, Philip George's determination to succeed saw him travel on an Aeroflot to England in 1970, aged eighteen, functioning only on adrenaline.

Eric Flannagan Jr grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia, where The Madison House Big Siblings Program became a pillar of his youth. He recalls the single decision he made to raise his hand in a class, not realizing how this transformative experience would shape his adolescence. Flannagan recounts the impact of those siblings on his upbringing, weaving together his personal experience with broader social and cultural issues. He reflects on the intersections of race, class, and privilege that impacted his childhood and how these continued to influence his outlook into adulthood. Following him through his teenage and university years, Flannagan, a natural linguist and avid traveler, discusses his life's highs and lows, his periods of growth and transformation, and how he has emerged on the other side of the decision he made over thirty years ago.

Dr Jessica Taylor grew up on a council estate where brutality and coercion were normalised, and where substance abuse was a day-to-day occurrence. Now one of the UK's most spirited advocates for women's rights, and a leading chartered psychologist helping women and girls subjected to violence and trauma, Jessica shares her own personal journey for the very first time.Told through a series of absorbing vignettes spanning from her childhood days to gaining her PhD in forensic psychology, Underclass is a memoir about extraordinary strength, the complexities of belonging, and finding your power even when it feels as though the world is against you. Do you bend to fit in, or do you accept that you will always stand out? Do you run away from your roots, or love them for making you who you are? Do you fade into mediocrity, or do you change the world?Taylor recounts with dark humour and unflinching detail the various lives she's lived, covering the violence suffered at the hands of her abusers, the realities of becoming a mother in her teenage years, coming to terms with her sexuality, putting herself through university, and overcoming underhand discrimination at work. She poignantly delves into both the classist and misogynistic double standards that she has faced throughout her life, whether she was waking up on a roundabout by the estate or chairing a parliamentary conference. You can take the girl out of the council estate, but you can't take the council estate out of the girl. Especially when it made her who she is today.The result is deeply moving, searingly honest, horribly funny and, above all, unforgettable; a memoir that stays with you long after you've turned the last page.

Andrew Feldmar is one of the most popular and widely read psychotherapists in Hungary. Credo, widely regarded as his best work, is his English debut. A gripping philosophical and autobiographical memoir, Credo lays bare an inspirational life and offers a fascinating insight into the work of R. D. Laing and the birth of radical psychotherapy.

An insightful, deeply moving memoir, capturing life working as a midwife in a busy NHS hospital at the same time as dealing with experiences of infertility, IVF and loss

This is a unique story. It is the story of a doctor and the many patients she sees every day. A tale of the diversity of life, the uniqueness of individuals and the impact of deprivation on the health of society.

" Il y a un fond de mépris dans la gloire que les hommes réservent aux femmes. Ils ne célèbrent guère d'elles que la beauté. Les dons de l'esprit et de l'âme ajoutent, ornements accessoires, à la parure des privi- légiées qui possèdent l'essentiel, la perfection du corps. Faute de beauté, tout obscures et comme éteintes, quels talents ou quelles vertus ne leur faut-il pas pour sortir de l'ombre? Si cette beauté est éclatante, quoi qu'elles en aient fait, elles les absout et leur séduction leur survit. Le moins méritoire des avantages est celui dont on leur sait le plus de gré, et le plus court des triomphes perpétue leur nom.Aux grandes amoureuses surtout va cette popularité posthume. On dirait que, pour s'être données à quelques hommes, elles aient droit à la reconnaissance de tous..."

Peut-on arriver à se raisonner dans le cas d'une peur extrême ?Comment se sortir d'une situation qui nous emble inextricable ?Au travers du récit, journal de bord d'une confinée, on suit l'évolution de ce personnage qui flirte parfois avec la folie douce et amère. L'enfermement de la personne et de son esprit tire les ficelles d'un écheveau, qui ressemble plus à une toile d'araignée.Les jours s'égrainent, numérotés. Malgré tout, cette notion de temps nous aspire occasionnellement dans une spirale ubuesque.

" On m'a dit quelquefois que je devrais faire un livre sur Bizet, et ce livre, je ne l'ai jamais fait, et je ne le ferai jamais. Est-ce à moi, d'ailleurs, à le faire? Est-ce à l'élève d'apprécier les ¿uvres de son maître? Est-ce à l'ami de raconter la vie de son ami? Comment s'y prendra-t-il pour trouver et garder le ton juste, et ne risque-t-il pas de mal servir une chère mémoire en voulant trop bien la servir? Pour mon compte je l'ai toujours pensé, et j'ai cru qu'il valait mieux me borner à fournir des documents aux musicographes plutôt que de me constituer moi-même le biographe de Bizet. Voilà pourquoi, après avoir une première fois, en 1877, réuni dans une courte brochure, avec trop de réserve, sans doute, des souvenirs et des extraits de sa correspondance avec moi, je me décide aujourd'hui à publier à peu près intégralement les lettres qu'il m'avait adressées et à ra- conter les faits que je n'avais pas rapportés alors dans mon opuscule. C'est que j'étais gêné, en effet, par la préoccupation de ne pas me mettre en scène, de ne pas paraître céder aux suggestions d'un vilain amour- propre, et, en cherchant à éviter un mal, je tombai dans un autre. Heureusement, les lettres restent, et leur texte, au moins est-il là, tandis que les souvenirs,¿c'est une loi constatée par les historiens, s'altèrent et se déforment, si même ils ne s'effacent pas complètement. Il se peut donc que j'aie oublié des détails intéressants et que d'autres aient perdu pour moi de leur netteté. J'aurais dû tout écrire en 1875, au lendemain de la mort de Bizet, quand ma mémoire était bonne parce que j'étais jeune. Rien ne m'aurait empêché de retarder la publication de ce manuscrit; à présent, je le retrouverais, et bien des mots curieux, bien des conseils instructifs eussent été conservés. Enfin, si j'ai eu un très grand tort à cette époque en négligeant de tout noter, c'est une raison de plus pour consigner ici ce dont je continue à me souvenir en prévenant toutefois que s'il y a des points qui sont demeurés clairs dans mon esprit, il risque d'y en avoir d'autres où il y a peut-être de la confusion lorsque ce n'est pas une perte, une entière disparition."

A Different Time of Day is a collection of 12 creative, non-fiction stories that take place in New Hampshire and Massachusetts during the early 1990's.The subjects vary from snapshots of everyday life, to enterprising trials and quixotic quandaries, to more salient, sober reflections - all are told with keen observation, wit, and the good humor of a native New Yorker turned countryman.Immersive and insightful, the stories include a lighthearted foray into the coffee aisles at Lechmere's; a personal, moving narrative to see New England's movement disorder specialist; an illuminating account involving a stranded tractor in the backyard (and an ordeal with a stray telephone pole in the front); an introspective search for a radio at the mall; an existential crisis caused by a cryptic coffee cup at Burger King #3326; together the pieces capture a wide range of moments and characters, giving an honest view of the more trying - and amusing - experiences over a half-decade.

" However, one day, the lid had not been secured as well as usual. The cows smelled the corn and nudged the lid off. When grandfather returned, before he got to the still, he found the cattle stark drunk, staggering all over the field, as a result of raiding the mash barrel...."I grew up in Raleigh county, in a little town called Beaver, in the state of West Virginia. I lived on a 100 acre farm in a family of ordinary means. When I look back to my childhood I realize how fortunbate I was to have clean air, clean water, vegetables from a thoroughly oganic garden, fresh cow's milk, butter, and buttermilk - fresh every day. We gave the hogs what was left from each day so we raised great pork. Recycling was a part of life, not something you had to work into your habit. Back then we didn't have thrift shops like the Goodwill, as we wore our clothes so long that they weren't fit for anyone else to wear. This is what it was like.Many times I return to this quiet time in memory, and relax my mind and body. -Pearl Todd Miller

The Depressed Church - An Intimate Portrait is an insightful story of a Christian woman's struggle with depression, anxiety, and its shames. In spite of its fears, it's an incredible journey of strength in the face of hardships.

Michael T. Flanigan has epilepsy. As a result, he has had grand mal seizures since the age of twelve. The condition is unwanted, he didn't ask for it, but the reality is he will have the potential for seizures for the rest of his life. Will difficult situations arise? Yes. Do you run away from life or do face it with the tools you have been given? By sharing his real-life experience in "Epilepsy Will Never Beat Me", Flanigan wants to educate and motivate the reader with a simple playbook on how to deal with epilepsy. Stay close to your friends, trust your family, and have true faith in God and you will find that no problems get in your way. Flanigan's personal philosophy? "Bring it on!"

A catalyst is something or someone that provokes significant change. A trauma is a catalyst. The change--whether physical, emotional, spiritual, or all three--doesn't happen immediately. The change is a journey with side steps and detours along the way. The only hard and fast rule is that you can't go back to who you were before. This is the story of Carrie Rickert's journey of change after such a catalyst. Her life-threatening accident and related complications started her down this path of examining what was, what is, and what could be. Most importantly, though, this is a story of hope, of possibility, of embracing the fight to become something new. This path has been filled with craters and dips, pivots and weird circles, and a lot of it has been completely terrible. If she had an option, she wouldn't go back. She wouldn't trade who she is now and who she is going to become. Join Carrie on this journey of life's ups and downs and let her words, her perspective, and her humor about it all inspire you to be grateful for the catalysts in your life.