Well, it's going to be a bit of a challenge to write this post, but nowhere near as tough as it must've been for Catherine Simpson and her family to decide to share 'When I Had a Little Sister', a powerful story of family, grief and mental illness.
Showing posts with label issues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label issues. Show all posts
30 March 2019
Broken Hearts, Broken Minds
'When I Had a Little Sister' by Catherine Simpson (4th Estate, 2019)
Well, it's going to be a bit of a challenge to write this post, but nowhere near as tough as it must've been for Catherine Simpson and her family to decide to share 'When I Had a Little Sister', a powerful story of family, grief and mental illness.
The 'Little Sister' of the title is Tricia, who, following a lifetime dogged by mental health issues and depression, killed herself in December 2013 at the age of 46. Beginning with this terrible event, Simpson describes the feelings and formalities of the immediate aftermath, then reflects on her family's past and how the tough, stoic attitude of generations ultimately led to tragedy. Tricia, Catherine and their eldest sister Elizabeth grew up together on the ancestral Lancashire farm, living in the farmhouse where Tricia's life would eventually end. The apparently idyllic surroundings belied a childhood dominated by tough and eccentric personalities, whose influence would echo down the generations. Eventually, having exhausted their shared experiences, Simpson cautiously turns to her sister's journals, filling in the gaps and discovering a whole life that no-one knew her sister had. The book ends where it began, with Tricia's death, and the effect of the tragedy on the family closest to her.
Well, it's going to be a bit of a challenge to write this post, but nowhere near as tough as it must've been for Catherine Simpson and her family to decide to share 'When I Had a Little Sister', a powerful story of family, grief and mental illness.
14 October 2018
Under Cover Uncovered
'Soldier, Spy' by Tom Marcus
So, from peril in the Underworld I moved on to peril in the UK in the form of 'Soldier, Spy', memoir of former soldier and MI5 surveillance officer Tom Marcus.
'Soldier, Spy' is a brutally, no-nonsense memoir. After a necessarily self-sufficient childhood, Marcus joined the Army as soon as he was able, eventually becoming the youngest person selected for Special Operations in Northern Ireland. In this role, the particular skills he'd acquired while growing up on the streets were noted by his superiors and he was recruited to MI5 soon after the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London. He became an able but gradually more and more maverick officer, completing team operations across the country to tackle everything from international spies to home-grown terrorism. It's a dark, dangerous and low profile business, and, eventually, a lifetime on high alert starts to take its toll on Marcus's mental health. But in a world of half-truths and suspicions, how do you tell what's right and what's wrong?
So, from peril in the Underworld I moved on to peril in the UK in the form of 'Soldier, Spy', memoir of former soldier and MI5 surveillance officer Tom Marcus.
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| 'Soldier, Spy' by Tom Marcus (Penguin Books, 2017) |
'Soldier, Spy' is a brutally, no-nonsense memoir. After a necessarily self-sufficient childhood, Marcus joined the Army as soon as he was able, eventually becoming the youngest person selected for Special Operations in Northern Ireland. In this role, the particular skills he'd acquired while growing up on the streets were noted by his superiors and he was recruited to MI5 soon after the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London. He became an able but gradually more and more maverick officer, completing team operations across the country to tackle everything from international spies to home-grown terrorism. It's a dark, dangerous and low profile business, and, eventually, a lifetime on high alert starts to take its toll on Marcus's mental health. But in a world of half-truths and suspicions, how do you tell what's right and what's wrong?
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