'A treatise on empathy and grace in extraordinary circumstances' Jojo Moyes
'Today I sat on a bench facing the sea, the one where I waited for L to be born, and sobbed my heart out. I don't know if I'll ever recover.'
This note was written on 9 November 2017. As the seagulls squawked overhead and the sun dipped into the sea, Alexandra Heminsley's world was turning inside out.
She'd just been told her then-husband was going to transition. The revelation threatened to shatter their brand new, still fragile, family.
But this vertiginous moment represented only the latest in a series of events that had left Alex feeling more and more dissociated from her own body, turning her into a seemingly unreliable narrator of her own reality.
Some Body to Love is Alex's profoundly open-hearted memoir about losing her husband but gaining a best friend, and together bringing up a baby in a changing world. Its exploration of what it means to have a human body, to feel connected or severed from it, and how we might learn to accept our own, makes it a vital and inspiring contribution to some of the most complex and heated conversations of our times.
'Insightful and wise, generous and kind' David Nicholls
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Imprint: Vintage Digital
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Published: 14/01/2021
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ISBN: 9781473569249
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Length: 256 Pages
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RRP: £14.99
Reviews
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Heartbreak and happiness sit in tandem in Alexandra Heminsley's wise and generous book . . . . As Alex slowly reconciles herself to the loss of a husband, she recognises that the three of them will still be a family and that, despite the trauma, she is once again happy in her own skin
Eithne Farry, Daily Mirror
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Staggering . . . This is a world turned upside down . . . Heminsley is unflinching in her exploration of her feelings . . . Her Hollywood ending is her realisation that she doesn't have to blame herself for her situation; rather it is society's fault for creating a world where people like D are scared to express their gender identity
Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times
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A vital call for compassion and awareness . . . a hugely hopeful and deftly written book - and one that might encourage greater empathy in how we respond to all kinds of difference
Gwendolyn Smith, i
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Breathtakingly honest, warm and generous, Some Body To Love is a testament to how family and love can be whatever shape we want them to be
Sarra Manning, Red
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This memoir is going to change a lot of people's lives, and I think it's going to change the conversation
Damian Barr, Big Scottish Book Club
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A brave, thoughtful and timely book -- calming and inspiring on our different relationships with our bodies, and vitally compassionate on trans rights
Naomi Alderman
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It took my breath away . . . It's such a beautiful book, so full of compassion and kindness even in its furious honesty . . . You are going to love it
Bryony Gordon
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A book about how a personal crisis caused someone to open up rather than shut down . . . really admirable and carefully done . . . on bodies, families, gender identity, bravery
Amy Liptrot
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Wise, kind, funny, sad and beautifully written. Everyone who occupies a human body should read it
Erin Kelly
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Fabulous . . . Sensitively and cleverly written . . . remarkable
Judy Murray
