Author:Susan Quilliam,Relate
Packed with relationship advice from Relate, the marriage guidance experts, Staying Together offers guidelines to help couples survive and grow through their relationship problems so that they need not separate and may maintain their commitment to each other. Case histories, quizzes and questionnaires show how this is possible and even how to make a partnership stronger. The book covers how to: --confront difficulties --understand your partner --re-negotiate an improved relationship --develop skills to make improvements last --assess when problems first appeared and how they developed --face changes --communicate and meet a partner's needs --create good times --build on commitment and happiness.
the only relationship book you'll ever need
—— The TimesNicholson has given voice to a rarely-acknowledged truth about caring
—— Irish TimesJon's honesty is heart-rending
—— Mail on Sundaypractical solutions for people with sleep problems
—— The Times Body & Soultop tips for the perfect night
—— Marie ClaireDespite 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 , GuardianHaving 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.
—— ObserverThe 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 TelegraphIn 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 Statesmana rich account...brilliant vignettes
—— Camilla Long , Sunday TimesThis piercing memoir paints in vivid colours Julia Blackburn's nightmarish childhood
—— Alison Flood , The TelegraphBlackburn tells us about these things in a compelling authorial voice which is by turns numb and incredibly sensitive
—— William Leith , Evening StandardBrutally honest book ...deeply moving testament to the love that can somehow survive
—— Aimee Shalan , GuardianAn extraordinary family memoir... A bohemian classic
—— Week