Joseph Delaney used to be an English teacher, before becoming the best-selling author of the Spook's series, which has been published in 30 countries and sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide. The first book, The Spook's Apprentice, was adapted into a major motion picture starring Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore.

Joseph Delaney

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Elizabeth Bryan

As a result of a genetically-transmitted gene, all three Bryan sisters, Felicity, Elizabeth and Bunny have had cancer. And, unusually, each of them suffered a different cancer; ovarian, breast and pancreatic. As the gene also has a dominant inheritance, half of their family members can be expected to carry it. Now, in a personal and deeply affecting memoir, Elizabeth writes of her family's extraordinary experience of this dreadful disease. 
 
Writing not only as a daughter, sister and aunt of those afflicted and bereaved by cancer, but as a sufferer herself, she will tell of the shocks, sadnesses, dilemmas and uncertainties that come with diagnosis and then treatment. Giving a personal view from both the perspective of a patient and that of a relative, as well as comparing the impacts of remission and terminal prognoses on herself and those around her, Singing the Life gives a uniquely wide-ranging account of dealing with life-threatening illness and the threat it still poses in her family. Eloquently setting Elizabeth's personal story against the universal fears, problems and worries that face those affected by cancer, this is an inspirational and encouraging read unlike any other on the subject.

Singing the Life

The story of a family living in the shadow of Cancer

Sharon Hamilton

'God only knows what fate befell Vicky after, cold and alone at that bus stop, she accepted a lift home.' 
 
Abducted from a local bus stop, schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton vanished into thin air. Her disappearance left the country in shock and a family torn apart. Sharon - her sister and best friend - never stopped looking for her. Then, seventeen years later, the search came to an abrupt and tragic end. 
 
Taken is Sharon Hamilton's heartbreaking true story of what happens to a family when one of its most loved members disappears without a trace. It's about never giving up hope that one day they will come home, and that justice will be done.

Taken

The Agonising True Story of My Missing Sister

Mathilde Monaque

Mathilde Monaque developed severe depression when she was just 14. The eldest in a family of six and an exceptionally bright and gifted little girl, the discovery shook her family to the core. 
 
Trouble in My Head is Mathilde's tender and illuminating account of her struggle to surface from a disease that could have taken her life. With remarkable sensitivity and lucidity she describes her experience of depression, her days in the teenage hospital and her battle to conquer the disease. 
 
Mathilde's perspective as a sufferer of teenage depression is unique. Unlike adult depression which involves feelings of guilt, Mathilde describes teenage depression as a breaking down of certainties, the fear of being oneself, the fear of not loving and of not being loved. Adults and teenagers alike will find inspiration and insight in her touching and remarkable account.

Trouble in My Head

A Young Girl's Fight with Depression

Sandy Lewis

Sandy Lewis describes having a child with Down's Syndrome as both the best and the worst thing that ever happened to her. Like all parents, the birth of her son changed her life in miraculous ways, but Max's condition has presented her with a series of additional challenges and anxieties. 
 
In Living with Max, Sandy takes us on a remarkable and inspiring journey, from Max's birth to his extraordinary film debut as one of the stars in the hit film Notes on a Scandal. With unflinching honesty, unaffected humour and not a shred of self-pity, Sandy chronicles the highs and lows of bringing up Max: his amazing ability to light up a room with his smile; his energetic exuberance and love of life; together with the struggles she has faced in raising her son in a world that is clearly not as politically correct as we would like to think. 
 
As well as offering a humorous and enlightening insight into the world of a family living with Down's Syndrome, this is a wonderfully moving story of a mother's courage and tenacity, and of a little boy you can't fail to love.

Living with Max

Stephanie Merritt

'I was nearly twenty before I understood that there was a name for what sometimes happened to me. Later, I learned that it has gone by many names - the black dog, the bell jar, the noonday demon, darkness visible, malignant sadness - but in my teens I'd just assumed that my fierce highs and days of disproportionate, isolating despair were part of every teenager's repertoire - how else would Morrissey have sold so many records? These pitches in mood were something I didn't speak about to anyone, because I was afraid of two things - either that it was nothing serious, and I would be told to pull myself together, or that it was serious, and I would be told that, yes, I was a mental case.' 
 
Stephanie Merritt has a career as a novelist and journalist, a beautiful son and a supportive family. Why then did she want to kill herself at the age of 29? Why could no one, neither the system of GPs and health professionals, nor her closest family and friends help her? 
 
Reading like a hybrid of Elizabeth Wurtzel's Prozac Nation and Rachel Cusk's more sober A Life's Work, Stephanie's unflinchingly honest memoir explores areas of experience commonly associated with depression such as love, solitude and self-medication through the prism of her own experience. 
 
Beautifully written and intensely honest this is an extraordinarily moving, life-affirming book about a debilitating illness that affects one in six people in the UK alone.

The Devil Within

A Memoir of Depression

Lisa Lloyd

So now it all makes sense. I am to blame for the ’tisms in this household, and the poor hubby is just stuck here in the middle of all of us, with our meltdowns, masking and madness. Once you know, it all starts to add up ... 
 
Like any new parent, when Lisa Lloyd became a mum, her own needs were put at the bottom of a very long list. But for Lisa, adapting to her new life felt almost impossible. The sensory overload, the upheaval, the lack of personal space – how did anyone do it? What she didn’t know was that this was the start of a journey that would lead to her finally discovering who she really is. 
 
In Unmasking Mum, Lisa shares the story of her autism diagnosis at age 41 to shine a light on the challenges of neurodivergent parenting. From autistic burnout, to being the ‘odd mum out’ and managing all the meltdowns (your own, as well as the kids’) – if you too are a parent with autism or ADHD, this candid guide and memoir will help you make sense of the rollercoaster ride we call ‘parenting’. 
 
With honesty, humour and useful tips along the way, Lisa is pulling off the mask. It’s stuck quite hard, but bit-by-bit, it’s peeling away, revealing the real Lisa who has been hiding all along.

Unmasking Mum

A Very Honest Guide to Life as a Neurodivergent Parent

Donna Ford

In this haunting and frank account, Donna Ford, bestselling author of The Step Child, returns to the horrific abuse she suffered at the hands of her stepmother. As a tiny girl of five, and for six long years, Donna was physically, mentally and sexually abused. She was starved, beaten and 'loaned out' to neighbours who raped and molested her ... and throughout her father stood by and did nothing. When her stepmother finally left the family home, Donna dreamed of a normal childhood in which she would be taken care of by the man who had, up until this point, failed her. But it was not to be. 
 
By telling the whole story of her Edinburgh childhood, Donna tries to understand why the man who should have loved her the most - her own father - was the one who deceived her the most, by continuing to allow men to abuse her. Instead of finding a future of love and happiness, Donna was once again thrust into a living nightmare of 
exploitation and betrayal by those who should have wrapped her up in their love. 
 
While this is a true story of appalling child abuse, it is also a tale of how exhilaration, tenderness and self-development can flourish despite childhood horrors. We take a journey with Donna to discover the woman she has become: a devoted mother of three and a talented artist and writer.

What Daddy Did

The shocking true story of a little girl betrayed

Sue Elliott

Adoption is one of the great, untold stories of our recent past. It is a truly epic tale of loss, guilt, identity, family feuds, reunion and redemption. It is a subject, until very recently, surrounded by secrecy and taboos. 
 
This is the heart-warming true story of a little girl's adoption in the 1950s and her search, nearly forty years later, for her birth mother. When mother and daughter meet, Sue thinks she has finally reached the end of her journey. Then Sue discovers she wasn't the only baby her mother gave away ... 
 
Weaved throughout is the vivid, emotional history of adoption in the UK. Drawing on a wide range of intimate personal experiences, it outlines the forces that shaped 20th century adoption practice, from baby-farming, the stigma of illegitimacy, incest and the bastardy laws, to children taken by force, the Magdalene laundries, mass emigration schemes without parental consent, to modern day adoption practices, buying babies from abroad, sperm donor fathers and tearful reunions on Trisha.

Love Child

Sue Martin

Sue Martin was not three years old when she began life at her first children's home: a home that could at best be described as cold and regimented; at worst, torturous and terrifying. 
 
When her mother abandoned her to the protection of the home, Sue was soon to discover that behind the welcoming doors of this reputedly kind-hearted organisation lay a world steeped in lies, cover-ups, victimisation and abuse. At its heart was Boagey, whose perverse bullying was targeted at Sue. Her attacks quickly progressed from the gratuitous punishment of an innocent child to sordid gratification of her sexual whims. 
 
Sue's story is one of institutional abuse - of physical, mental and emotional torture of the most appalling kind - but it also a story full of joy, humour and many victories - small and large - against her abusers. 
 
Utterly compelling and shockingly revelatory, No Way Home will astound, move and inspire.

No Way Home

The terrifying story of life in a children's home and a little girl's struggle to survive

Angela Scanlon

'Gratitude is your soul's superfood, but cheaper than goji berries, and twice as good for you. I like to think of it as mindfulness for cynics or the "gateway drug" to spirituality. It's a very tangible thing you can do everyday that will shift your focus to what you have rather than pining and obsessing over what you don't have. Away from a state of lack into limitless abundance...' 
 
 So what happens when we stop taking things for granted and start putting some grá* into our gratitude? When we consciously turn our heads and hearts to what we have and focus on the good? In Joy Rider, television presenter and host of the podcast Thanks A Million, Angela Scanlon, presents her guide to tapping into your own natural super resource - joy. 
 
 This book is an invitation to embrace the kind of gratitude that cuts through the bulls**t of life to its truth, connecting us with the present and grounding us in self. When there is so much to feel anxious about, Angela shares with readers how focusing our attention on the small, incremental positives in life can completely change it for the better. 
 
 * It means love in Irish

Joyrider

How gratitude can help you get the life you really want

John Diamond

Shortly before his 44th birthday, John Diamond received a call from the doctor who had removed a lump from his neck. Having been assured for the previous 2 years that this was a benign cyst, Diamond was told that it was, in fact, cancerous. Suddenly, this man who'd until this point been one of the world's greatest hypochondriacs, was genuinely faced with mortality. And what he saw scared the wits out of him. Out of necessity, he wrote about his feelings in his TIMES column and the response was staggering. Mailbag followed Diamond's story of life with, and without, a lump - the humiliations, the ridiculous bits, the funny bits, the tearful bits. It's compelling, profound, witty, in the mould of THE DIVING BELL &amp; THE BUTTERFLY.

C: Because Cowards Get Cancer Too

Leslie Kenton

Leslie Kenton was the only child of Violet, a stunning Hitchcock blonde, and Stanley - the legendary jazz giant Stan Kenton. Their story takes place on the road in 1950s America and in the mania of Hollywood - a world of jazz clubs, dance halls and one-nighters, where lives were lived on a razor's edge. 
 
Love Affair takes us beyond the bright lights and glamour into an intense, claustrophobic world of a father and his child. Too closely matched, their shared DNA traps them in a double helix - one strand forged in terror, the other luminous with a shared passion for music, joy and laughter. As the strands become entwined, blood on white tiles obliterates innocence and a forbidden honeymoon brings a terrifying, unbounded freedom. Gradually, as Stanley grapples with alcohol and his personal demons, his actions threaten to destroy the only real, untainted thing in his life: Leslie. 
 
A true story of obsession, tragedy and grace, Love Affair is Leslie Kenton's powerful memoir. At its heart is the complex relationship with her father - a union so powerful it defines all that comes after. As their lives become increasingly entangled, so do the forces of darkness and light that exist within us all, leading to destruction for him and heartbreaking redemption for her.

Love Affair

The memoir of a forbidden father-daughter relationship

Linda Watson-Brown

The true story of Donna Ford, who between the ages of five and eleven was abused by her stepmother Helen. Labelled 'the bastard', the 'little witch' and 'the evil one'; beaten, isolated and afraid to even look at her own reflection, this beautiful little child was told she was lucky to be the victim of abuse - abuse which began as physical and mental, but progressed to the most appalling sexual attacks. 
 
Despite an horrendous early life, Donna is now a successful artist and mother of three with an enormous enthusiasm and an optimism which completely belies her experiences. 
 
In 2003, Donna watched as her stepmother was found guilty of 'procuring a minor' for sexual abuse and sentenced to two years in prison. 
 
Beautifully written and savagely honest, The Step Child is Donna's story. It is an inspiring tribute to the resilience of the human spirit.

The Step Child

A true story of a broken childhood

Kate Konopicky

If there's one thing that everyone has an opinion about it's how to bring up a child - especially your child. Kate Konopicky found herself an embattled mother, knowing that however hard she worked everything was wrong. If she went back to full-time employment she was neglecting her child. If she stayed at home the child would be clingy and shy. So, she became a combination of teacher, nurse, nutritionist, psychologist, entertainer and mind reader. She didn't get weekends off and never phoned in sick when she wanted a lie-in. The boss was illogical, demanding, incapable of undertaking the simplest task. Yes, we've all had jobs like that but at least we got paid for them. 
 
Kate Konopicky is an anarchic voice in the face of regimented parenting books. With brilliant humour, she'll make you believe you're not a failure when your fairy cakes don't rise, and you'll slowly come to realise that you may not be perfect but that you are doing your best. 
 
'A wildly irreverent look at the parenting game. This riotous look back over her first five years of motherhood will come as a relief to imperfect parents everywhere - in other words, to all parents.' You Magazine

A Woman Of No Importance

A tenderly observed, ruthlessly honest and hilariously funny memoir about the joys and horrors of motherhood

Emily Halban

Emily Halban developed anorexia in her final year at school. She went on to university at Oxford where her disease took on a powerful dimension and by her final year she was so debilitated that she had to sit her exams in a separate room where she could be fed continuously throughout each one. 
 
With heartbreaking candour and poignant intimacy, Emily vividly chronicles the complexities and inner struggles of living with anorexia. Two years on, she traces her disease from its elusive origins, through its darkest moments of deprivation, guilt and self-loathing, and finally recounts her journey towards recovery. Emily allows us to understand what it's really like to suffer from anorexia, exposing its secrets and dispelling some of the myths that shroud it. 
 
Alive with self-awareness, but never self-pity, Perfect is an inspiring read that will help those battling with the horrors of anorexia find a way out, and those on the outside to understand more.

Perfect

Anorexia and me

Richard K. Baer

In 1989 a woman named Karen showed up at author and psychiatrist Richard Baer's practice, terribly frightened and at breaking point. She explained that her husband beat her, her mother stole from her; she was in tremendous physical pain and wanted to die. Within a few sessions she also revealed that her father and grandfather had raped and tortured her repeatedly over the course of her childhood, frequently in the company of other neighbourhood men. She was now married with two children, but often could not account for stretches of minutes, hours, sometimes even days. 
 
As Karen's story unfolded over the following months, Baer realised that he was dealing with a severe case of Multiple Personality Disorder. Although it would take time and deep, hard-won trust before any of Karen's alternated personalities presented themselves in her psychiatrist's office, over the next five years Baer would encounter seventeen distinct personalities, all of whom had been living inside Karen since she was a young child, shielding her from an otherwise unbearable life. 
 
In the tradition of Oliver Saks and Irvin Yalom, Baer chronicles his nine years of work with Karen and all her distinct personalities, his often futile efforts to use the tools of his trade, and his patient's ultimate invention of her own cure. An unforgettable story of unimaginable suffering and ultimate recovery, A Life In Pieces: How One Woman's Personality was Shattered by Years of Abuse is the first account of life with Multiple Personality Disorder written by the treating psychiatrist.

A Life in Pieces

The harrowing story of a woman with 17 personalities

Howard Dully

Charles Fleming

Howard Dully was 12 years old when he was given a lobotomy. He was 56 years old when he found out why. The four decades in between tell a story of profound love and compassion. 
 
In 1960 Howard's father and stepmother delivered him into the hands of the man who had invented the 'ice pick' lobotomy. Expelled from the mainstream medical community, his once-popular procedure now a grisly medical relic, Dr Walter Freeman was eager to turn this temperamental 12-year-old into a submissive boy - especially after hearing the terrible lies his stepmother told about him. Howard, told he was going into the hospital for tests, was instead given electro-shock treatments and a transorbital lobotomy. It took him 40 years to recover. 
 
Howard Dully's escape from that dark place is a voyage of enormous hope and universal appeal.

Messing with My Head

The shocking true story of my lobotomy

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