Author:Susan Lewis,Colleen Prendergast
She was only nine when her world fell apart. The struggle to understand took a lifetime.
In 1960s Bristol, Susan's family was like any other with its joys and frustrations, and fierce loyalties. Then tragedy struck and left a legacy that was to last a lifetime.
Susan was only nine when her mother died. A year later she was sent away to school. She didn't want to go, and didn't understand why she had to.
In her struggle to cope with an uncertain world - a world where nothing seemed to make sense any more - she pushed away the one person she loved best, her father.
It wasn't until adulthood beckoned that she realised that, in order to turn their relationship around, she had to learn to love - and trust - again.
You won't find a more moving and powerful account of love and loss
—— Douglas Wight , News of the WorldMadeleine is not only an impressive and well-written chronicle of a terrible crime, it is a must-read because someone out there knows something
—— James Murray , Sunday ExpressPowerful... Kate's book blazes with the sheer, visceral force of her love for her daughter
—— Sandra Parsons , Daily MailMrs McCann writes honestly about her torment
—— Robert Mendick , Sunday TelegraphIt's hard to read these words without wanting to weep
—— Christina Patterson , IndependentThis haunting account makes me rue the day I doubted them
—— David Jones , Daily MailIt is high time the McCann haters pushed off... It seems clear that, far from self-justifying, or attention-seeking, this book is what it has always been about for the McCanns - a practical solution to fundraising
—— Barbara Ellen , ObserverThe saddest story I have ever heard... it touches levels of human agony far beyond the reach of everyday journalism
—— Craig Brown , Mail on SundayThis book brought tears to my eyes several times... but despite the tragedy at the heart of the book, there are flashes of humour
—— Daisy Goodwin , The Sunday TimesDeeply moving
—— Angus McBride , GuardianA searingly honest book
—— Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan , Daily ExpressExtremely honest and candid
—— Lorraine Kelly , Sun(A) testament to the ferocity of maternal love
—— Allison Pearson , Daily TelegraphWhile Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is rich in autobiographical detail, it is a wide and bold an experiment in the memoir form as any so far written... in writing that is astonishingly naked and brave, Winterson reveals the legacy of that difficult and painful childhood... Much of this book is laugh-out-loud funny... Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is proudly, and sometimes painfully, honest.It is also, arguably, the finest and most hopeful memoir to emerge in many years and, as such, it should not be missed
—— John Burnside , The TimesIt is clear from the first page of this shattering, brilliant memoir that the black humour of Oranges was there to disguise the true awfulness of her childhood. If things were bad in Winterson's fictional world, the reality was much, much worse... There is a sense at the end of this brave, funny, heartbreaking book that Winterson has somehow reconciled herself to her past... Her childhood was ghastly, as bad as Dickens's stint in the blacking factory, but it was also the crucible for her incendiary talent
—— Daisy Goodwin , Sunday TimesBoasts everything that she does best: courage, ferocity and prose that soars
—— Julie Myerson , New Statesman, Books of the YearIn memoir, honesty matters more than anything but, when married with humour, wit and elan vital of Jeanette Winterson's [book], it is a transformative force
—— John Burnside , New Statesman, Books of the YearThe specifics of her early abuse is vivid, violent, and no less horrifying for its familiarity... If the memoir was begun as a final exorcism of the monster mother, it ends with a moving acceptance of her
—— IndependentMoved me deeply. [It] celebrates the redeeming power of the written word and is undercut with an irresistible humour born of residence in hardship
—— Juliet Nicholson , Evening Standard, Books of the YearAn extraordinary tragic-comic literary autobiography
—— Mark Lawson , Guardian, Books of the YearThere is something darkly Dickensian in the urgency and energy of her character and quest, in the acute, abrupt style of her self-presentation and in the extreme characters who have informed her life
—— The TimesFunny and scary mixed together, in the manner of the Brothers Grimm, sharp as a knife, round as a child's eye
—— Daily TelegraphDifficult, spirited, engaging... a resonant affirmation of the power of storytelling to make things better
—— Jane Shilling , Daily MailMoving, turbulent
—— Zoe Williams , GuardianShattering, brilliant memoir... Here childhood eas ghastly, as bad as Dickens's stint in the blacking factory, but it was also the crucible for her incendiary talent
—— Daisy Goodwin , Sunday TimesVerbalyl dazzling, emotionally searing, compassionate and often hilarious memoir
—— Genevieve Fox , Daily MailJeanette Winterson's new memoir appears to have been highly praised, rightly it seems to me, for its zest and candour and noted for a quality that some reviewers have seen as haste or even carelessness but which I see as her characteristic lively, pugnacious inventiveness.
—— Nicholas Murray , Bibliophilic BloggerThe prose is breathtaking: witty, biblical, chatty and vigorous all at once. She defines the pursuit of happiness not as being content (which is "fleeting" and "a bit bovine"), but as the impulse to "swim upstream", the search for a meaningful life. This breathless, powerful book is that search.
—— Emily Strokes , Financial TimesWinterson is a bold author with a track record of writing imaginative transformation tales, and this is a work about the power of words, stories and books to give identity to a life that is in turns shocking, funny, warm and wise.
—— Tina Jackson , MetroEngaging memoir.
—— Daily TelegraphThere clear-eyed, drily witty, searingly moving memoir.
—— Katie Owen , TelegraphIt does all that committed fans might hope... This is far funnier than the novel that made Winterson’s name... Brilliant book.
—— Catherine Nixey , The TimesAn inspirational memoir written in beautiful exact prose that celebrates the wildness of the ordinary. Winterson’s understanding of who she is… is both appallingly funny and deeply moving. Essential reading for anyone with a snitch of an interest in writing
—— Rachel Joyce , The TimesWhy Be Happy When You Can Be Normal? burrowed deep and made me laugh and weep. This memoir has a great warmth and an intensity and honesty that is rare and the writing is exceptional
—— Jamie Byng , HeraldWinterson’s unconventional and winning memoir wrings humor from adversity as it describes her upbringing by a wildly deranged mother
—— New York TimesIt is in laying the truth bare in this unflinchingly honest and gripping memoir that Winterson really seems to find self-acceptance, love and even happiness
—— Yvonne Cassidy , The Gloss