Tag: memoir

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Triumph of Tenacity – Yusra Mariyam

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Triumphs of Tenacity: From Struggle to Success is an inspirational memoir of resilience, women’s empowerment, and immigrant success that will uplift anyone facing challenges in life.

Born in Bangladesh and moving to the UK at just seven years old, Yusra Mariyam faced enormous obstacles—adapting to a new culture, overcoming academic failures, and balancing the demands of motherhood. As a homemaker raising six children, her dream of higher education seemed impossible. Yet, through sheer perseverance, determination, and self-
belief, she transformed her life, graduating with a First-Class Honours degree in International Business Management from Anglia Ruskin University.

This powerful true story of courage and transformation explores the struggles of immigrant women, the challenges of adult education, and the journey of personal growth against all odds. It is a moving testament to resilience, empowerment, and the triumph of hope—a memoir that shows how tenacity can turn even the hardest struggles into success.

Readers looking for:
● Women’s empowerment books that inspire change
● Memoirs about overcoming adversity and finding strength
● Immigrant success stories filled with courage and hope
● Motivational books about education, resilience, and self-belief
…will find this memoir unforgettable and deeply motivating.

If you enjoy inspiring biographies, personal growth journeys, and real-life stories of achievement, this book belongs on your shelf.

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Yusra Mariyam is a London-based Business Growth Executive, writer, and mother of six. Born in Bangladesh and raised in the UK from the age of seven, she brings a rich cross-cultural perspective to her writing. Before entering the corporate world, she devoted many years to raising her children full-time, without ever imagining she would have the chance to pursue higher education.

That dream became a reality when she returned to university as a mature student, juggling family life, full-time work, and academic study. In 2024, she graduated with First-Class Honours in International Business Management—an achievement that inspired her debut memoir.

Triumphs of Tenacity is more than a traditional memoir. It’s a deeply personal account of one woman’s journey to reclaim her identity through grit, growth, and determination. Yusra shares how she balanced motherhood, career, and education in pursuit of self-empowerment. Her voice is honest, unflinching, and ultimately hopeful—inviting readers to see obstacles not as dead ends, but as turning points.

She hopes her journey inspires everyone—regardless of gender, age, or background—to believe that it’s never too late to redefine their path and pursue long-held dreams.

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My thoughts: This was an interesting read, Yusra came to the UK as a young child, and her father’s gentle advice and inspiring words helped her cope with life’s little rejections and failures. As a mother of six, she didn’t imagine university was for her, until a woman in the careers service encouraged her to apply to study for a business degree. 

She chronicles her time as a mature student, with the support of her family, especially her husband and children, and with her father’s continued love and support, she achieves her goal and graduates. She credits not only the people around her, but also her Muslim faith for helping her through the difficulties and hard work.

While her life has not always been easy, and those early knockbacks affected her confidence for a long time, she overcame the many challenges and struggles along the way. It’s an inspiring and encouraging – reminding us all, regardless of our background, that you can do whatever you set your mind to, whatever your age or life.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Last Secret Agent – Pippa Latour

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“My name is Phyllis Ada Latour, known to many in my later years as Pippa, and I am 102 years old. I am also known by other names — code names and alias names — because I was a World War II secret operative agent. This is my memoir, which finally tells the story of my life working behind enemy lines in France 80 years ago. It is a part of my life that, until now, I have intentionally never revealed to anybody. Not my husband (when I had one), nor my children — even when they became adults. This book tells the truth about my war. I’m the last living female special operative from F Section and I need to record what happened before I die. I would like to leave my story behind so that, perhaps, young women in particular might know what it was like for me back then”. – Pippa Latour

‘Vivid, honest, inspiring and sometimes shocking, Pippa Latour’s memoir shows how right the SOE were to assess her as having ‘”tons of guts”‘ – CLARE MULLEY, author of Agent Zo

The Last Secret Agent, by Pippa Latour is the extraordinary untold story of Latour, who parachuted into occupied France in 1944 as an undercover agent and sent secret messages back to Britain.

In June 1940, a covert new force – the Special Operations Executive (SOE) – was set up to wage a secret war. Its agents were tasked with sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines, and over the course of the next five years, 470 special agents would be sent into France. Only 26 female SOE agents, including Pippa, would return. Pippa had an extraordinary life – born in 1921 she lived in Congo, Kenya and France before eventually landing in London. In 1943, aged 23, she was parachuted into France, where she travelled around the occupied countryside, concealing her codes in a hair tie and her Morse key underneath her bicycle seat, and sending crucial information back to Britain in the lead-up to D-Day. More than once, she came frighteningly close to being discovered. For decades, Pippa told no one – not even her family – of her incredible feats.

Now for the first time, her story can be told in full. It is an incredibly rare first-person story. Although there are several biographies of female WW2 spies, there are no other first-person memoirs of this kind. And as the last female WW2 SOE agent to die, Pippa’s story will be the first and last to be told in this way. It is a rare and privileged glimpse into her life, and in many ways, it is Pippa’s last public service, her last contribution to freedom. It is a remarkable testament to a remarkable and brave woman.

THE AUTHOR PIPPA LATOUR – following the war, Pippa settled in New Zealand where she raised four children. For decades, Pippa told no one – not even her family – of her incredible feats during WWII. For seventy years, Pippa’s contributions to the war effort were largely unheralded, but she was finally given her due in 2014 when she was awarded France’s highest order of merit, the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Pippa was the last surviving F (France) Section Special Operations (SOE) agent from World War II. In the final months of her life, Pippa finally decided to tell her remarkable story, written with the assistance of award-winning historical documentary producer and writer Jude Dobson. Pippa died in 2023, at the age of 102.

My thoughts: This was incredible, Pippa Latour lived a heck of a life, born in South Africa, raised in the Congo, orphaned but with a wonderful extended family who love her, sent to finishing school in Paris just before the war and then after joining the WAAF, she’s recruited by SOE to go to France undercover as a spy.

Her life behind enemy lines is incredibly dangerous, terrifying and yet there’s something a little bit magical about it. Pretending to be a teenage girl selling her French grandparents soap, she snoops around the Normandy countryside, relaying troop movements and locations by radio, in Morse code, to London, as D-Day preparations ramp up.

Shocking, terrible things happen, some of them because of her intel, and her own life is on the line several times. She mentions the other female SOE operatives in France, many of whom sadly did not survive, incredibly brave women all.

Pippa lived to be 102, having lived and extraordinary life, but her war years were largely unknown, even to her family, for a long time. This memoir is full of brave, courageous, ordinary men and women opposing the massed forces of the Nazis and fighting for freedom. It stands as a wonderful tribute to those people and also to the magnificent Pippa herself, who did something few could and help influence the course of the Second World War. Genuinely inspiring, heart pounding, mind boggling stuff.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: How Not to be a Supermodel – Ruth Crilly

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‘As Miranda Priestley might say, ‘a million girls would kill for this job’.

Well, Ruth Crilly is here to tell you why that might … not … quite be true.

England. 2001. Ruth Crilly has embarked on a law degree and is destined for a life of normality and stability. That is, of course, until she sticks a polaroid of herself in a box somewhere in Birmingham and is scouted by one of the biggest agencies in the world.

Flung between Redditch and Milan, telesales and Vogue, wizard cloaks and red shearling coats, follow Ruth through a riproaring, hilarious decade of not-quite-making-it as a supermodel. Fuelled by little more than cigarettes and a fear of being measured she criss-crosses the world in pursuit of fame and fortune.

Bridget Jones meets the Devil Wears Prada as told by a mix of Marina Hyde and Bryony Gordon: How Not To Be A Supermodel is a time capsule of a book that dives into one of the world’s most fascinating industries. Offering a glimpse into both the high glamour and juddering reality of a by-gone era, this is a comic memoir gracefully relayed by a pessimistic, sardonic disaster-magnet.

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Ruth is an award-winning online writer and content creator respected for her honest beauty reviews and loved for her hilarious, unfiltered life updates. After spending over a decade as a fashion model, she became one of the UK’s first social media stars in 2010 and her eponymous blog has been read more than 50 million times. Her earlier career as a successful fashion model left her with a fear of tape measures, diminished confidence in her physical appearance and a horrible tendency to rely on selfdeprecation as a form of humour. Follow Ruth on Instagram: ruthcrilly Subscribe to Ruth’s YouTube channel: amodelrecommends

“What you’re about to read is a very frank, very truthful account of what happened to me as a fashion model, twenty-ish years ago. Brace yourself. Seldom has a memoir been so misguidedly brave – rarely will you have seen an author left so vulnerable, so very exposed to utter humiliation and ridicule. I only ask that you read it in the intended spirit, which is to laugh uproariously and revel in my humiliation. Because this isn’t a grim exposé of the modelling industry in the noughties: it’s a raucous, hilarious romp through a decade of my biggest and best mishaps and catastrophes, some of which were no doubt brought upon myself. (But not the time that I accidentally performed in an informal sex show, that was entirely down to fate.)

How Not To Be A Supermodel isn’t (just) a grouse about how I was never cool enough, tall enough or thin enough to make it to true modelling stardom: it’s a catalogue of all the ways I wasn’t cut out for a life of fame and fortune. It’s a nostalgic love/hate letter to my bizarre first career and all of the ways it probably messed me up. I’m sure you will find yourself totally immersed in the world of modelling from the very first sentence (which is, incidentally, ‘You don’t see Milla Jovovich with a fluctuating arse,”) but just in case you need a little help getting into the zone, I’ve recorded a guided meditation. Take a few moments before you begin the book; find a quiet space, close your eyes and allow yourself to be transported right back to 2001, into the mind of a fledgling fashion model…”

My thoughts: I follow Ruth on Instagram and think she’s hilarious so I was excited to read her memoir, all about her modelling career in the 00s.

She is just as funny in print as on social media, turning her misadventures in the model business into an entertaining and occasionally alarming read. Viewed from 2024 the things that were accepted in the early 00s do seem completely crazy  – and Ruth is very aware of that.

It’s also the story of how Ruth met her lovely husband, a photographer then known as Filthy Rich. And why she quit modelling, having done her degree and almost died in the freezing cold, and decided to do something else – be absolutely hilarious on the Internet.

I think it helped that Ruth has a sense of humour and never took the whole modelling thing too seriously, luckily never developed any addictions or eating disorders and was down to earth and in her twenties.

There are some pretty unpleasant things she went through and some truly mean people, but on the whole she survived it all, the weird concepts (the penguin hat was particularly bizarre), the travel to stay in grim apartments and earn a total of £28.28 for a month in Tokyo, the poor health from the strange hours, the freezing cold location shoots, the standing still for ages.

The book is very funny, Ruth has a wry tone familiar to her online followers and a healthy disregard for fashion’s insanity. She’s fully aware that the obsession with thin is unhealthy and stupid, she was on the large side of modelling at a size 10, which seems bonkers when the average is a size 16, but most models are even tinier.

It was a really fascinating read but like Ruth, I’m glad she got out in one piece and is happier and enjoying the life she has now, with her family, cat, and career. 

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Hungry Heart – Clare Finney

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Award-winning food writer Clare Finney presents a moving, heartfelt exploration of the intertwining influences of food and love
 
From family feasts to comfort foods, first dates to office cake; how does what we eat define us, and the relationships we have with others?
 
Award-winning food writer Clare Finney delves into these questions with a rare and insightful sensitivity, telling a powerful story of life and love whilst uncovering the manifold ways in which food touches all relationships: from perfect strangers to partners, parents and friends.
 
Beginning with a childhood spent in her grandmother’s hotel kitchen and ending at her grandfather’s bedside, she charts a course through the meals and recipes which have shaped the person she is today.
 
Finney also investigates the role food plays in a modern society which can often feel isolating, exploring how eating unites us in varied ways throughout our lives. From the dance of culinary courtship entailed in dating to the funeral foods that remind us of the connections between life and death, Finney examines the power of food and drink to attract, bind and define us – and of course, its power to divide and repel.
 
At a time when our relationship towards what, when and where we eat has become increasingly complicated, Hungry Heart is a feast; an honest, heart-warming account of humans breaking bread together and what that really means.

Clare Finney is a food journalist, Londoner and cheese lover. In 2019 she won the Fortnum & Mason Food Writing Award for her work with Foodism and Market Life, Borough Market’s magazine.

My thoughts: exploring her life and emotions through recipes and the meals that made them, the author (who grew up in the same town as me – some of the places she mentions have resonance for me too) charts her childhood trips to her grandparents’ hotel, her parents’ divorce, her teenage eating disorder and her university years.

As a food writer she has written extensively on the things we eat, but here she explores our emotional connection to food, her own and her friends and colleagues. Each chapter ends with a recipe, dishes that have been made with love and are imbued with memory and in many cases comfort.

It was a really interesting book to read and one I will come back to as a lot of the things discussed in the chapters were intensely thought provoking.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

books, reviews

Book Review: Will I Ever Have Sex Again? – Sofie Hagen

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Comedian Sofie Hagen has not had sex in 3,000 days (and counting). And it turns out, she’s not the only one . . .

In an attempt to find out why we’re not having the sex we want, Sofie asks the questions: can we blame a lacking sex education? Is it all just sexual trauma? Where’s the radical sexual liberation we were promised? What are we going to do about this? Should she have slept with that guy in that bush that one time? How do you overcome being a 35-year-old virgin (when it comes to queer sex, that is)? How do the socially awkward and the neurodiverse have sex?

In Will I Ever Have Sex Again?, Sofie Hagen explores the quirks and difficulties of being an ‘involuntary celibate’ (but one of the feminist, progressive ones). With a blend of memoir and conversations with experts, therapists, sex workers, porn stars, comedians and public figures, this is a humorous and bold undertaking to gain a better understanding of how we can think, talk and feel about sex.

My thoughts: this was a really interesting read, bits of it were very funny, because Sofie Hagen is a funny person, and bits of I were very insightful too.

I found Sofie’s exploration of sex, sexuality, gender identity, and the body intelligent and thought provoking. At no point was any of the discussion gratuitous or rude, and the range of people quoted, from academics to porn performers and drag kings, added to the discussion in new and interesting ways.

While exploring their own gender and sexuality, Sofie also shared a sample of different stories, some anonymously from the 1,800 responses to their survey and others from friends and experts. I liked the differing experiences and perspectives on the questions being raised. It felt like a collaborative exploration of the themes and showed that we all experience sex, love, sexuality and gender differently. I actually filled out the questionnaire, which was very insightful and made me think a lot about my own experiences and feelings. 

Despite Sofie’s stated plan to end with an orgy, there isn’t really an overarching narrative, it’s more a collection of thoughts and experiences as Sofie gets to know themselves better and understand how others see the same things with their own perspective. We are all a collection of our thoughts, feelings and experiences after all.

The book felt like a great jumping off point to asking yourself about how you truly feel about sex, relationships, sexuality, gender identity and your own past, present and future, whether you’re currently having sex with another person or not. It has certainly raised questions in my mind that I need to work through.

I’ve seen Sofie perform before and am planning to go and see them again later this year, while this book didn’t make me more or less interested in them, I did think they gave a large insight into themselves, and opening yourself up to scrutiny like this is incredibly powerful. I know there will be negative responses, but I personally feel more positively towards Sofie, like I know them better and understand them more.

Because of the feelings the book might raise, I wouldn’t say it’s the easiest of reading and it may well ring bells within you, especially in the chapter about sexual assault and rape. So save this for when you feel safe and able to evaluate yourself. I wouldn’t say it’s one for reading on the bus to work for example, definitely more for at home on your own. But it is definitely worth reading.

*I was kindly gifted an advanced copy of this book, which will be published in May, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: Kookaburras, Cuppas and Kangaroos – S. Bavey

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Fueled by her spirit for adventure and with her £10.00 ticket in hand, Elizabeth Isle leaves 1960s England, determined to see it all, not just Australia and New Zealand, but as much as she can on the
way, too. She surrenders her passport to the Australian government and must find work to support herself on the other side of the world from her family and friends. There can be no going back for two years.

Join this intrepid young woman on the adventure of her lifetime. Share her amazing experiences, discover what exotic animals await, get travel tips and meet her new friends through her letters home and over plenty of cups of tea. Beware – the travel bug might prove infectious!

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Sue Bavey (writing as S. Bavey) a British mother of two teenagers, now living in Franklin, Massachusetts, having moved to the US in 2003. Writing as S. Bavey, she won a gold award from Readers’ Favorite for her grandfather’s biography: Lucky Jack (1894 – 2000), which she wrote during
COVID lockdown. She also has a number of non-fiction stories published in various anthologies.
Kookaburras, Cuppas & Kangaroos is the story of her late mother’s emigration from Yorkshire to Australia in 1960 for three years, told via airmail letters and travel diary entries.
A free prequel to Kookaburras, Cuppas & Kangaroos”, called “A Yorkshire Lass: The Early Years” is available for free download from http://www.suebavey.com.

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My thoughts: compiled from letters and diary entries her mother wrote while living and travelling in Australia as a Ten Pound Pom in the 1960s, Sue Bavey has given us a real treat. Her mother, Liz, had a wonderful time exploring Australia and New Zealand as a young woman.

She takes on various jobs to fund her trip, making friends and visiting relatives, exploring the landscape by train, boat and car, having lots of adventures and documenting it all in photos and letters home to her parents and sister.

I really enjoyed this adventurous young woman’s time Down Under, in a place I’ve never been and probably won’t go (Australia seems to want to kill you via its wildlife, weather and landscape – I don’t think we’d get on) at a time I didn’t experience (far too young).

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Strong Female Character – Fern Brady

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A summary of my book:

1. I’m diagnosed with autism 20 years after telling a doctor I had it.

2. My terrible Catholic childhood: I hate my parents etc.

3. My friendship with an elderly man who runs the corner shop and is definitely not trying to groom me. I get groomed.

4. Homelessness.

5. Stripping.

6. More stripping but with more nervous breakdowns.

7. I hate everyone at uni and live with a psycho etc.

8. REDACTED as too spicy.

9. After everyone tells me I don’t look autistic, I try to cure my autism and get addicted to Xanax.

10. REDACTED as too embarrassing.

Fern Brady is a woman. She is also autistic. She was born in Scotland (no, not Glasgow). She has no presets for being a ‘good woman’ – she never hated her body or indulged in messy millennial shame. She now lives out of wedlock in London. She has zero children. Fern’s caustic wit, exceptional writing and electric stage craft has made her one of the UK’s hottest comedy stars.

As seen on Live from the BBC, Live from the Comedy Store, The Russell Howard Hour, and Live at the Apollo. She’s had viral success with her BBC Life Lessons and supported Frankie Boyle and Katherine Ryan on tour. She can currently be seen on Taskmaster on Channel 4.

My thoughts: I like Fern Brady, she’s a very funny, intelligent comic and her book, while often quite dark, is also funny and intelligent.

Fern was only diagnosed as autistic as an adult, but to her, it explained a lot about her childhood, her difficult teenage years and her twenties – where she struggled at uni and dealing with people.

She spent much of her teens dealing with CAMHS and some staff that maybe shouldn’t have been responsible for vulnerable young people. It’s only as she gets diagnosed and researches autism that her time in mental health units makes sense – she was only ill because no one took her autism seriously. Some of the doctors and psychiatrists she encounters are incredibly ignorant about the condition and keep telling her, a young woman having violent meltdowns, that she’s not autistic and that she just needs more medication.

It’s honestly quite shocking and really sad. It shouldn’t be that hard to get the right support and be taken seriously. Most autism research has historically been done with young boys, however, and well, women are better at masking the condition.

This is an incredibly brave and bold book, talking frankly about her experiences, life, and autism. I highly recommend it, and Fern’s comedy too.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Trauma Effect – Zetta Thomelin

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The Trauma Effect reveals a family secret, a trauma, a tragedy that felled a family, the book exposes uncomfortable truths and follows the journey of recovery.

Families have secrets, hidden traumas, the skeleton in the closet. We can inherit the effects of these events without even realising it, absorbing it unconsciously, like a sponge absorbs water.

My family has such a secret. I tell you my story in this book, my story as I thought it, and then the truth of my story to help you to heal yours.

I explore how such events can affect us, both psychologically and physically and take you on the journey of recovery, how to bring a full stop to that inheritance of shame, blame and guilt, so the next generation does not have to carry the burden of it too.

We need to do something about it, shine a light on it, take the skeleton out of the closet, dust it down and bury it once and for all.

Zetta Thomelin is a therapist in private practice, involved in the governance of complementary medicine as Chair of BAThH, as Vice-Chair of UKCHO and as a Trustee of Research Council for Complementary Medicine

Prior to her career in therapy, she worked in the media at News International and Chronos Group Publishing and later in the Third Sector as CEO of Children with AIDS Charity and Vice Chair of Mama Biashara.

She is the author of two other books, The Healing Metaphor and Self-Help? Self-Hypnosis!

For further information go to http://www.zettathomelin.com email info@zettathomelin.com

My thoughts: this was a really interesting and informative read, using her own family as a case study, therapist Zetta explores how trauma can echo through the generations in a family and have an impact even if you don’t experience it firsthand.

Her grandparents and father were the ones directly affected by her aunt’s terrible death, but she was impacted by it too, through them. She looks at the different psychological theories and treatments that can be used to help someone experiencing generational trauma and what she has used in her own practice.

My own family has some experience of generational trauma and so I was interested to understand the effects of this and how it might manifest. A thoroughly intelligent and well written exploration of this condition and its impact.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

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Book Blitz: Voices of Cancer – Lynda Wolters

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“I don’t know what to say” and “I don’t know what to do” are common responses to a life-threatening diagnosis. Voices of Cancer is here to help.
Every cancer story is different, but there is one commonality: both patients and the people supporting them often struggle to properly articulate their wants and needs through particularly challenging and in many cases, uncharted territory. Lynda Wolters knows firsthand: she was
diagnosed with stage 4 terminal mantle cell lymphoma in August of 2016.
Voices of Cancer offers a candid look into the world of a cancer patient, informed by Lynda’s own story and conversations had with dozens of patients weighing in on their needs, wants, and dislikes as they navigate the complex world of diagnosis, treatment, and beyond. With comprehensive and accessible insight from people who’ve been there, Voices of Cancer helps educate, dispel fears, and
start positive conversations about what a cancer diagnosis truly means, while shining a light on how best to support a loved one on their own terms.

Audible (US) Kindle (US) Hardcopy (US)
Audible (UK) Hardcopy (UK)


Lynda was born and raised in a tiny farming community of 400 in northern Idaho. She worked on the family farm, with her first job being picking rocks out of the fields and ultimately graduating up the
ladder to driving a grain truck and combine during harvest. Following high school, Lynda continued her education in Las Vegas before she moved back home to Idaho to raise her three sons.
Lynda still resides in Idaho with her husband and their peekapoo, Max.
Lynda has worked in the legal field for 30+ years and enjoys ballroom and swing dancing, horseback riding, kayaking, and river rafting. She has a heart for people and enjoys regularly volunteering. She
spends the bulk of her spare time reading and writing.
Lynda was diagnosed with terminal stage 4 Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL) in August 2016. She touts herself as being a thriving warrior of the disease.
Lynda has completed two books of nonfiction: Voices of Cancer, released in October 2019, and Voices of LGBTQ+, released in August 2020.
The Placeholder, Lynda’s debut novel, was released in November 2022.
Lynda has published the following articles: Navigating the Workplace with Chemo Brain, February 23, 2020, Elephants and Tea. and When Masks Weren’t Popular, March 24, 2020, Patient Power. She has
spoken on several podcasts, been a guest on a local talk show regarding Voices of Cancer, and given interviews for other outlets and print.

Jane Brody wrote up Voices of Cancer in the New York Times, her article entitled What to Say to Someone with Cancer, on January 13, 2020, with a follow-up on January 20, 2020, entitled, When Life
Throws You a Curveball, Embrace the New Normal.
The Chinese translation rights of Voices of Cancer have been purchased by a grant to offer the book to medical students in Tawain.
Lynda donates Voices of Cancer books and a portion of its proceeds to Epic Experience, a nonprofit camp for adult survivors and thrivers of cancer located in Colorado.

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“A strange thing occurred when I was diagnosed with my cancer, which I need to point out for this post, is incurable and I have currently outlived “predictions” by two plus years and counting. I say this because what that means is that I wait daily for that proverbial shoe to drop, for the cancer to flare back up and set my life and health back into a tailspin.
So, given this type of life sentence, people are not really sure what to make of my dark humor about the matter. I too, am unsure what to make of it at times, but, as the saying goes, it is what it is.
Examples – If my youngest son, who along with my husband was my primary caregiver, hasn’t heard from me within what he considers a prescribed amount of time, he will send me a text: Are you dead? Usually followed by a skull and crossbones emoji.
Now, I think this is hysterical; others, including my husband, are mortified. I guess my son and I figure one of these days my usual response, “Not yet,” isn’t going to come, but at least we had some good laughs in the meantime.
Recently, I was asked by a young man at a beauty clinic if I would like to consider putting money into a savings fund for my future beauty treatments. (Of note, my medical history is in bold letters on my chart – no missing it.) “Now, at just $75 per month, in 18 months almost anything you
would like will be significantly reduced or free.” I agreed with him it would be a really good deal for most people but not for me. Undeterred he continued with the benefits and how much I could have saved on this day had I had the savings plan. He then tried to close me, “So, what do you
think?” I shot him down again as politely as I could by saying, “No, thank you. I may well be dead by then.” And in his sweet, innocent way, he gasped and said, “You’re not that old!” I nearly felt bad when I had to drop the joke and explain, “No, really, I may not be here,” pointing to my chart. Poor kid.
Writing Voices of Cancer I learned from many patients that they too suffer from macabre humor, and find the dark jokes hilarious and as a way of wrapping their minds around their circumstance.
I also learned that like me, most of these people would prefer for those on the outside of our diagnosis to continue to poke fun at us and treat us just as they once did. Sensitivity is great until it turns into coddling.”

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: No Worries If Not – Sophie Galustian

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In the spirit of My Mad Fat Diary by Rae Earl and Slug by Hollie Mcnish, No Worries If Not is a relatable coming-of-age story, that explores Soph Galustian’s experiences of poverty, queerness, mental health, grief and community. She recounts her life from childhood, to teens, into adulthood through a mixture of short stories, spoken word, illustrations, and space for the reader to reflect.

This book is for anyone who was raised struggling, anyone who wrestled with coming out, who accidentally killed their childhood pet, who has lost the person closest to them…

Filled with flashbacks to the 2000s/2010s, No Worries If Not is equally for the straights and the gays, the rich and disadvantaged. In this book Soph offers up her experiences and a space to reminisce and laugh at life’s misfortunes.

Soph Galustian is a born-and-bred Mancunian writer and actress of Armenian heritage, who specialises in comedy writing and spoken-word poetry. This is her first book. She is the writer and star of BBC Three comedy threesome Peck ‘Eds. A comedy about the testing moments of growing up as a young, working­class woman in South Manchester. Soph is currently starring in Channel 4’s Everyone Else Burns, a coming-of-age comedy about a Mancunian family and the puritanical Christian sect they are devoted to. This is her first book.

My thoughts: complete with a playlist you can listen to on Spotify, this is the memoir of a writer and actress who grew up very much in the Internet age, she talks about MSN Messenger and Facebook, the mid 00s is very much alive in this funny and at times heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Manchester without much money but with plenty of love and adventure.

Soph (not Sophie unless you’re her passport or mum) has a lot to say on the subject of being young and trying to find your way in the world. She’s gay and struggling to work out how to deal with that. She tries dating boys but that’s really not her thing, and falls in love pretty hard with her friend.

There’s some really sad and dark moments as well, and Soph explores a lot of her emotions through her poetry and drawings, shared throughout her book. There’s a lightness of touch to her writing, the way she chats to the reader, like a friend catching you up on things that makes it readable and relatable.

I can remember the years Soph writes about really well, the quite recent past but being a wee bit older than her, my memories of those years are somewhat different, but I liked the thought of the next generation coming up behind me doing a lot of the same stupid shit I did as a youngster.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own