I Want My Mummy Back

Oct 4, 2024 5:20 AM

Author:Jon Nicholson

'This account will not hide from the truth of what this illness does to the one who is suffering, and to all those whom that person loved the most. Above all, however, I want to write this book because my story, which is also Emma's and that of our three wonderful children, is nevertheless a story of hope.'

Living Without Emma is Jon's Nicholson's moving account of how he and their three young children coped when their mother was diagnosed with the cancer that ultimately took her life. On her 35th birthday, Emma Nicholson was told she had a tumour - it turned out to be osterosarcoma, a very rare form of bone cancer.

For 14 months she fought the disease and here Jon writes about how her illness put unimaginable strains on his relationship with his wife and the loved ones around them, how it pitched them all into roles they had never foreseen, and how as a family they coped and pulled together in the dark days after her death to discover a life that, although very different from the one they had planned, is happy.

Reviews

Both stark and heartrending

—— The Times

Nicholson has given voice to a rarely-acknowledged truth about caring

—— Irish Times

Jon's honesty is heart-rending

—— Mail on Sunday

practical solutions for people with sleep problems

—— The Times Body & Soul

top tips for the perfect night

—— Marie Claire

Despite the darkness of the rooms she re-enters, her book isn't gloomy in the least... Extracts from her journal and faxes to Herman offset the main narrative, which darts back and forth in time. It's a structure that works wonderfully well... However unforgiving her detail, tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner is the message of this extraordinary book

—— Blake Morrison , Guardian

Having read her family memoir, a book that engrosses and horrifies in equal measure, it is hard not to be reminded of Larkin's famous axiom: 'They fuck you up your mum and dad.'... 'Blackburn's writing transcends the frightening idiosyncrasies of her upbringing. Her prose is understated and evocative, despite the desperate truths that lurk beneath.'... 'It would be easy for Blackburn to attribute blame or to seek explanation, but her refusal to do so gives this triptych portrait an integrity and honesty that it could otherwise lack.

—— Observer

The fact that I was unable to put [the book] down is proof of how well she tells [the story], and of how such an experience, if described with real skill, honesty, and sensitivity, will make a valuable book, however many others of a similar kind have been published.... I ended it feeling very glad indeed that I had overcome my first disinclination to begin it

—— Diana Athill , Literary Review

[Blackburn] has written an exceptionally perceptive and fascinating book, a tribute by a remarkable daughter to the resilience of filial love.

—— Anne Chisholm , Sunday Telegraph

In this memoir she describes her eccentric, dangerous, wonderful bohemian parents...Blackburn emerged from this turmoil as a fine writer, and this book is full of understanding and reconciliation

—— Margaret Drabble , New Statesman

a rich account...brilliant vignettes

—— Camilla Long , Sunday Times

This piercing memoir paints in vivid colours Julia Blackburn's nightmarish childhood

—— Alison Flood , The Telegraph

Blackburn tells us about these things in a compelling authorial voice which is by turns numb and incredibly sensitive

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

Brutally honest book ...deeply moving testament to the love that can somehow survive

—— Aimee Shalan , Guardian

An extraordinary family memoir... A bohemian classic

—— Week

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