Author:Anjula Mutanda,Relate
The ultimate relationship guide from Relate - full of warm and friendly advice, case studies, exercises, questionnaires and key life moments to focus on. Your one stop shop to building, navigating and maintaining meaningful connections.
'Something to learn in every chapter' -- ***** Reader review
'Should be compulsory reading for everyone' -- ***** Reader review
'This is a MUST HAVE book for anyone' -- ***** Reader review
'A very insightful book full of common sense' -- ***** Reader review
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The course of true love isn't always smooth, but rocky relationships needn't be a recurring pattern.
Written in conjunction with Relate, this guide will help you learn what makes relationships work, where they can falter, and how you can maintain a lasting, meaningful and loving connection.
- Discover how your personalities and past experiences affect you both
- Break negative patterns to build a happier foundation
- Navigate relationship choices, such as moving in together, marriage and starting a family
- Overcome any relationship obstacle with problem-solving techniques
With guidance and support on every aspect of loving relationships, from the moment you meet 'the one' to growing old together, this positive and accessible book is the ultimate relationship guide.
This is a small masterpiece
—— DJ Taylor , Independent on SundayAn absorbing memoir of a town, a family, and an artist – one in which only the artist has reached his potential. Sharply observed, emotionally true and metaphorically rich
—— J Robert Lennon , GuardianI loved this very affectionate and haunting portrayal of Russo’s mother and the glove-making world gone by. The man as a boy watching his own mother’s helpless and scattered journey through her illness, describing in touching detail what the boy knew but only the man can say. It reminds me of the power that a personal story can have
—— Hugo Hamilton , author of 'The Speckled People'Absorbing memoir
—— Robert Collins , Sunday TimesA beautifully executed book easeful and lucid in tone but spiked with a few telling moments of observation, humour and violence
—— Keith Miller , Daily TelegraphOn Helwig Street is an excellent addition to the burgeoning genre of memoirs dealing on the complexities of the maternal bond. There is a fine line between mothering and smothering, a distinction Russo explores masterfully in this enjoyable and thoughtful book
—— BooksellerBeautifully acute... It engage[s] thoughtfully, and surprisingly, with our struggle to find fulfilment in a strange world'
—— Times Literary SupplementIt's a mark of Knight's talent that JP can be so contradictory, but never unconvincing. By the time the novel has wound down to a bittersweet and pleasingly enigmatic ending, you'll even miss the guy, and all his friends. Which shows just how well Knight has done her job
—— The AustralianKnight's second novel is a bleak and brilliant book, a disturbing anatomy of the privileged but unexamined life
—— Sydney Morning HeraldA bleak portrayal of Sydney-sider thirty-something digressives and nihilists. I liked its refreshing inconclusiveness and its sparse dialogue-driven dramatic arc, and its evocations of physicality
—— Will SelfMassive and freewheeling as well as tight, acutely observed, moving and very funny ... deeply satisfying
—— Evie WyldHot Things to Do Now - funny, squirm-inducing
—— GraziaWitty and perceptive
—— Woman and HomeA far-reaching and fascinating study upon humanity... It is intelligent and is certainly an important contribution to the field of child psychology
—— Kirsty Hewitt , NudgeIt is very rare for a book to smack the reader in the face, almost with every paragraph. That this reviewer had constantly to stop reading, in order to reflect and digest, is testament to a work of rare power... This book will change you
—— Tamim Sadikali , BookmunchUtterly fascinating, beautifully written and deeply moving… Thoughtful and humane… Totally gripping from beginning to end
—— Anna Carey , Irish TimesYou may want to save it for a holiday or similar period as it will draw you in so completely that it is hard to stop reading
—— SEN MagazineA beautifully written psychiatric study of difference and compassion
—— Jessie Burton , UK Press SyndicationIt's an incredible book, that had me crying on the bus more than once
—— Reading MattersHelping to improve attitudes.
—— David Aaronovitch , The TimesOutstanding book.
—— Louise France , The TimesI am staggered by these unsentimental and inspiring stories.
—— Sharon Guskin , The LadyHe writes unsentimentally… Reading this book changed the course of my work.
—— Henny Beaumont , Big Issue in the NorthFar from the Tree is a landmark, revolutionary book… Andrew Solomon plumbs his topic thoroughly, humanely, and in a compulsively readable style that makes the book as entertaining as it is illuminating.
—— Jennifer EganOne of the most extraordinary books I have read in recent times – brave, compassionate and astonishingly humane. Solomon approaches one of the oldest questions – how much are we defined by nature versus nurture? – and crafts from it a gripping narrative. Through his stories, told with such masterful delicacy and lucidity, we learn how different we all are, and how achingly similar. I could not put this book down.
—— Siddhartha MukherjeeA passionate and affecting work that will shake up your preconceptions and leave you in a better place. It’s a book everyone should read… there’s no one who wouldn’t be a more imaginative and understanding parent – or human being – for having done so… breathtaking reading.
—— Julie Myerson , New York TimesAndrew Solomon reminds us that nothing is more powerful in a child’s development than the love of a parent. This remarkable new book introduces us to mothers and fathers – many in circumstances the rest of us can hardly imagine – who are making their children feel special, no matter what challenges come their way.
—— President Bill Clinton"Parenting," writes Andrew Solomon in Far from the Tree, "is no sport for perfectionists." It's an irony of the book, 10 years in the making and his first since The Noonday Demon, that by militating against perfectionism, he only leaves the reader in greater awe of the art of the achievable. The book starts out as a study of parents raising "difficult" children, and ends up as an affirmation of what it is to be human.
—— Emma Brockes , GuardianThe first thing you should know about Andrew Solomon’s new book, Far From the Tree, is that it’s a monumental work. This is a masterpiece of non-fiction, the culmination of a decade’s worth of research and writing, and it should be required reading for psychologists, teachers, and above all, parents. Far From the Tree is a stunning work of scholarship and compassion.
—— USA TodayKnotty, gargantuan and lionhearted… Mr. Solomon’s first chapter, entitled 'Son', is as masterly a piece of writing as I’ve come across all year. It combines his own story with a taut and elegant précis of this book’s arguments. It is required reading.
—— Dwight Garner , New York TimesFar-reaching, original, fascinating - Andrew Solomon's investigation of many of the most intense challenges that parenthood can bring challenges us all to reexamine how we understand human difference. Perhaps the greatest gift of this monumental book, full of facts and full of feelings, is that it constantly makes one think, and think again.
—— Philip GourevitchAn informative and moving book that raises profound issues regarding the nature of love, the value of human life and the future of humanity.
—— Kirkus (starred review)Solomon is a storyteller of great intimacy and ease… [He] creates something of enduring warmth and beauty: a quilt, a choir.
—— Kate Tuttle , Boston GlobeAndrew Solomon provides us with an unrivalled educational experience about identity groups in our society, an experience that is filled with insight, empathy and intelligence. Reading Far from the Tree is a mind-opening experience.
—— Eric Kandel, author of The Age of Insight and winner of the Nobel Prize in MedicineSolomon is in many ways the perfect writer for the subject – nuanced, thorough, humane, and a gifted stylist.
—— Nathan Heller , New YorkerFar From the Tree is a book of extraordinary ambition… From a writer known primarily as a historian of sadness, this sweeping tribute to the joys of parental love can be startling and ecstatic.
—— San Francisco ChronicleA ground-breaking book
—— The EconomistBrought to life by its intimate domestic voices, many of them people who ended up falling in love with children they never knew they wanted
—— EconomistA life-changing book
—— Irish ExaminerNobody could read this extraordinary, moving book and not feel enlightened, but above all enlarged, by it.
—— Sam Leith , SpectatorI'd suggest this be made compulsory reading for an couple considering having a baby... This is a remarkable work: moving but never bathetic, challenging in parts but always worth the effort. I'd call it extraordinary - if only Solomon would let me.
—— Rosamund Urwin , Evening StandardA book brimming with poignancy
—— Dominic Lawson , Sunday TimesA fascinating examination of the accommodation of difference
—— Emma Brockes , GuardianYou don't so much read Far from the Tree as cohabit with it; its stories take up residence in your head and heart, messily unpack themselves and refuse to leave
—— Tim Adams , ObserverA generous, humane and — in complex and unexpected ways — compassionate book about what it means to be a parent
—— Julie Myerson , ScotsmanThe book is about people and their experiences and it is rich with their strategies, smiles and sadnesses
—— David Aaronovitch , The TImesSolomon writes movingly of the resources of support and empathy that he found among communities of the deaf, dwarfs, transgender children and people with Down’s syndrome
—— Jane ShillingA catalogue of astonishing tenacity and unexpected joy that inevitably expands both our sympathies and sense of wonder at the immense variety of human experiences
—— Laurence Scott , Financial TimesThis is a remarkable work: moving but never bathetic, challenging in parts, but always worth the effort
—— Rosamund Urwin , Evening StandardNobody could read this extraordinary, moving book and not feel enlightened, but above all enlarged by it
—— Sam Leith , SpectatorFar From the Tree is the most important book I’ve ever read. It is a masterpiece of research; giving an impressive insight into human relationships and our tolerance of those who are different. If everyone read this book the world would be a better place
—— Farm Lane BooksA monumental and generous-hearted book, balanced between the universal and the particular, and gorgeously observed
—— Deborah Cohen , Literary ReviewSolomon’s compassionate study of these dozen loves that are, and are not, like each other, illuminates not so much the heroism of difficult kinds of love as the adaptability of every kind
—— Siobhan Garrigan , The TabletA triumphant celebration of the power of parental love
—— Maggie Fergusson , Intelligent LifeForces] the reader to meditate on a number of wrenching, often heart-breaking aspects of existence. And to mediate as well on questions of stigma and prejudice, callousness and cruelty, the widespread and extraordinary intolerance of human diversity, and the horrors that those attitudes and behaviours heap on the heads of those whose lives are already extraordinarily difficult, and on the head of those who love and care for them
—— Andrew Scull , Times Literary Supplement