Tag: Non-Fiction Review

This Is Why You Dream- Rahul Jandial (Cornerstone 2024)

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From the author of “Life On A Knife’s Edge – Life Lessons From A Brain Surgeon” comes this very readable, yet very thorough (judging by the extensive bibliography at the back) study on dreams.  The author states that before starting this work he thought dreams represented very much a niche area of medicine with their interpretation, especially, having the distinct aroma of pop psychology, akin to horoscopes, but recent discoveries he has made on the operating table and the research carried out for this book has convinced him otherwise.  A specialist in paediatric brain surgery he certainly knows what he’s talking about and even though the complexities of brain functions will inevitably stump the general reader he makes everything as clear as he possibly can in explaining dreams and their purpose, significance, importance and meanings. 

There are sections on nightmares, erotic dreams, inspirations for creativity and impact on health and well-being.  There’s quite a chunk on lucid dreaming (where the sleeper is aware they are dreaming and can potentially exercise some control over their dreams) and what all this might mean for us in the future as some bewildering technology is under development.

If you, like me, are interested in dreams then you are going to want to read this book.  To get you going here are some little snippets I found myself highlighting.

  • We spend about two hours a night dreaming and not just during REM sleep as was once thought.
  • When dreaming the brain’s Executive Network shuts down (which controls logic, reason and reality testing) and another part, termed here the Imagination Network becomes dominant leading to those scenarios the waking brain would never fathom.
  • What we dream about is far more universal than you would expect.  Surveys carried out fifty years apart in four different countries show people’s dreams to be remarkably similar (predominantly school/exam dreams and being chased).
  • Dreams do actually follow rules: When objects transform into other objects it is generally something similar.  It’s hard to read in a dream (that is why I can never finish calling the school register in my recurring teacher dream).  Use of TVs, computers and social media turn up rarely.  Hands generally look strange as do watch and clock faces.
  • Up to the age of 7 or 8 children are rarely active participants in their own dreams, it’s mainly animals from stories and cartoons.  When nightmares kick in (and they need to for developmental reasons) children will experience them 5 times more than adults.
  • Exam Dreams?  In tests students did 20% better than those who didn’t dream about them, even though the dreamer may have had the humiliating experience of turning up late, or naked, or forgetting to revise.

Towards the end the author concludes that the understanding of dreams can only enrich our lives and help us to cope with events and emotions.  And, as a bonus, you never know you might discover something along the lines of the Periodic Table, DNA, or the sewing machine all of which benefitted from dreamers.

I think I’m going for a lie down now……

This Is Why You Dream is published by Cornerstone Press, part of the Penguin Random House Group in the UK on 18th April 2024.  Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

The English Ghost – Peter Ackroyd (2010)

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This is the 14th Peter Ackroyd book I’ve read.  They can vary from being so good they knock all competition aside as in my 2002 Book Of The Year “London- The Biography” (2000).  They can get pretty close to that standard (6 more appearances in my end of year Top 10s) and they can also be so-so, and that can apply to both his fiction and non-fiction works and this is the group that this book fits into,

A lot of it is to do with intention.  Some of his works including “London”; his 6 volume history of England and the original version of his biography of Charles Dickens are ambitious, massive undertakings.  My favourite of his novels “Dan Leno & The Limehouse Golem” (1994) fizzles and enthrals for its duration.  In a publishing career that has spanned over 50 years and has incorporated 18 novels, poetry and close to 50 non-fiction works on a range of subjects not everything needs the same attack and depth.  This is a much slighter affair, as it was no doubt intended to be.

Subtitled “Spectres Through Time” the author collects published eye-witness accounts of experiences with ghosts.  These span the centuries and take in haunted houses, wandering spirits, religious spooks, ghosts of animals, poltergeists and premonitions of death.  There’s a lot to choose from as Ackroyd states in his introduction that the English see more of these visitations than anyone else, with not surprisingly the Victorian period being the most significant.  I found it quite fascinating that removed from any greater context and analysis how much these accounts seem to blend into one another with common threads and patterns and how although obviously very scary for the individuals concerned at the time seem rather detached when recorded as factual events.  Most ghosts seen are not known by the haunted.  There’s lots of knocking and banging sounds, objects thrown hit but do not hurt individuals (but thrown against walls and floors etc. do cause damage) and messages either fail to be conveyed effectively or mean very little.  Obviously there’s exceptions to all of these but that provides a general picture and if it sounds like I’m being disparaging towards these (not always) night-time visitors I’m not because there’s no getting around their mystery.  These stories are all unexplained- often witnessed by upstanding members of the community, whole households or groups of individuals and that makes this mind-bending, compelling and, I must admit, without some kind of explanation a tad disappointing.

I’d been wanting to read this book since publication and I think I thought it was more of an examination of the role of the ghost in English culture, because that feels like something Peter Ackroyd would do whereas it is merely a record of hauntings and I think that this is why I wasn’t blown away by it but for a perspective of ghostly visits over the centuries and the power these had over those who witnessed such events it’s certainly worth seeking out.

The English Ghost was published by Chatto & Windus in 2010.  I read the 2011 Vintage paperback edition.

The Velvet Mafia- Darryl W Bullock (2021)

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British author Darryl W Bullock impressed with his irresistibly titled “David Bowie Made Me Gay” (2017), an overview of LGBT+ music which was a work of admirable scope and highlighted both the major and minor artists who worked towards changes of attitude in the music industry.  Here, he focuses on a smaller group of men who worked largely behind the scenes but who became highly influential and recognised figures, at least in part through their skilful use of promotion, the popular press’ obsession with their work and references to their sexuality, illegal for much of their time in the limelight, which made them the most high-profile group of gay men to date.

His main subjects, Larry Parnes, Brian Epstein, Joe Meek, Lionel Bart and Robert Stigwood are subtitled here as “The Gay Men Who Ran The Swinging Sixties”.  I knew who each of these were prior to reading this book but details were sketchy, with the exception of Joe Meek, the subject of John Repsch’s masterful “Legendary Joe Meek (1989) (a Top 3 read when I got round to it in 2002) and the five star biopic “Telstar”.  All these men knew one another but it is the eccentric outsider Meek who perhaps has the lowest profile here.  They were all innovators who made an indelible impression on the entertainment industry.  Larry Parnes first found unprecedented success with an ex-merchant seaman from Bermondsey, who became Britain’s first rock n roll star, Tommy Steele (it’s hard to fathom nowadays how famous he became in such a short space of time) and then used the formula again and again with a “stable” of renamed boys, (Billy Fury, Marty Wilde, Georgie Fame, Vince Eager, Lance Fortune, Dickie Pride etc etc), some of whom took off and some of whom cost their manager much money and stress.  Both Parnes and Epstein were individuals who I would have been happy to have read much more about.  Epstein pulled off an absolute master stroke with The Beatles.  He was inexperienced in artist management and had to learn on the job and nobody was prepared for the impact this group would have.  On the surface very confident, initially, privately he was a mess and winging it continually took its toll with his very early demise aged 32.  Lionel Bart’s “Oliver” propelled him to superstardom and he struggled to follow this up, losing a fortune and Stigwood eventually made it by hanging on in there whilst the others fell by the wayside.

I was particularly fascinated by a man who was linked with all of these, the showbiz lawyer, David Jacobs who seemed to be at the centre of everything for some time.  Things didn’t work out well for him, ultimately, either but I was left with an urge to find out more about him.  Behind their great successes these men had a surprising number of failed ventures but by using publicity, promotion and the media so well (although each faced at times the reverse side of this with press intrusion into their private lives) they could keep their heads above water and attempt to convince the public they were on the verge of discovering the next big thing.  On the fringes are everybody who was anybody in the sixties including the Krays, Judy Garland, Alma Cogan, The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones with David Bowie and Marc Bolan waiting for their time in the spotlight.

It is quite a dense read, as was the last book of his I read, filled with so much information.  Here, a largely chronological approach did trip me up at times keeping track of who was who but it really does shine a light on the time when the entertainment industry in the UK first became huge business and these men were instrumental in that.

The Velvet Mafia was published by Omnibus Press in 2021.

Real Dorset- Jon Woolcott (Seren 2023)

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Psychogeographers- this was a new term for me.  Nothing to do with unhinged people in kagoules rampaging down hillsides brandishing theodolites (although that’s now an image fixed in my head), it’s those who use the geography of a region to evoke its history, culture, stories and reminiscences.  I’ve discovered it’s a discipline I very much enjoy.  This is what is employed by the writers of the “Real….” Series published by Seren Books and edited by Peter Finch.  At time of writing there looks to be 28 titles in the series (some areas are obviously more rich in psychogeography than others as there are four volumes to cover Cardiff).  Here, in one volume is Jon Woolcott’s very personal take on Real Dorset.  Jon contacted me from his day job at Little Toller Books whose impressive “Seining Along Chesil” by Sarah Acton they’d published.  Jon has also found time to put in the legwork, as a psychogeographer, to travel around Dorset examining it both in broad sweeps and minute details and the result is an energetic, fascinating work.

I made my home in Dorset just over a year ago and as I said in my review of Sarah Acton’s book, the subject of which is visible from my bedroom window, I feel that I’ve just so far dipped my toe in its rich landscape and history.  “Real Dorset” is not a guidebook as such, there’s no list of gardens, opening times, cream teas, walks (although there is a lot of walking) or suggestions intended to make a fortnight’s stay go with a swing (although “Legends” a nightclub in Gillingham gets a mention!) There’s a lot some might seem significant to Dorset that barely gets a nod (my home area Wyke Regis, take a bow!) but the places chosen give a real feel for what makes this county what it is.  As well as visiting places I have come to know well, there’s places I will probably never go to and some I’d probably never find.  For someone who relishes place names and who the signposts in Dorset give great joy (Troytown, Puddletown, Tincelton, Piddlehinton) there’s a visit to perhaps the best of them all Ryme Intrinseca, if the first batch makes you feel you’ve strayed off the path and into some nursery Blytonesque world, Ryme Intrinseca suggests a timeslip into ancient times.  To live there would require patience, just think how often you would be spelling that out.

I learnt so much from this book, probably far too much to retain, but I’d like to think when I’m stood in some car park looking into the distance that the author’s observations and perceptions of this place will come back to me.  As he is responding not just to the history but the present, providing a memoir of his visit, you get some really delightful moments and he can be laugh out loud funny (especially in the notes at the end of each section, whoever knew author’s notes could be funny? These are certainly worth flicking backwards and forwards for).  He tells a delightful story about the working model train in Blandford Museum(which betters my experience of it just eating up my coins without doing anything).  My sister is very happy in her new Dorset home in Poundbury, I’m not sure how she will respond to the author’s comparison to Jacob Rees-Mogg having a Queer Eye makeover! (Can’t wait to tell her!)

It is in the conveying the richness, history and mystery of the county where this book is strong and I’d heartily recommend it to Dorset residents, new and old, and its visitors.  I found the approach to this series so refreshing that I’d recommend you to take a look at www.serenbooks.com to view the rest of the titles and see if any tickle your fancy.  Written by 20 or so authors across the series I’d be hopeful that they are as effective in bringing both the familiar and the forgotten Britain to life. 

Real Dorset was published in April 2023 by Seren Books.  Many thanks to the author and publishers for the opportunity to review this title.

Enchantment- Katherine May (2023)

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Katherine May has been having a hard time of it.  She feels exhausted, cannot concentrate on reading and is finding it hard to remember what used to bring her joy.  Recognise these feelings?  It’s burn-out, largely caused by the constant need to be aware during lockdowns which meant our fight or flight responses went all over the place and after much reflection Katherine May thinks she might have the answer.  It’s enchantment, in the sense of awe and wonder, a re-engagement with the natural world and a recollection of those things we, as individuals, once held special.

The author came to prominence with her 2020 best-seller “Wintering:  The Power Of Rest And Retreat In Difficult Times” which, like this book, is of the non-fiction genre now described as “hybrid memoir”.  I haven’t read that but I certainly felt I was in need of a little enchantment and was intrigued when I first heard about this book.  I think it might have thought it was going to be more along the self-help lines than it is, we get the author’s responses to “enchantment”, she tends to steer clear on advising us on how we can incorporate it into our lives.

It does seem reading this that the author was actually pretty well-centred and understood the magic of the natural world, it was just through lockdown she lost her way a bit.  It wasn’t, for example, possible for her to engage with her group of female sea swimmers, missing both the social aspects and the myriad of positive boosts that sea swimming brings to the initiated.  The author takes a very elemental approach looking at Earth (take off your shoes- I did this quite a bit during lockdown as a way of centring myself amidst the madness of the world), Water, Fire and Air, with a nod to Aether in the Epilogue.  She provides interesting perspectives and I do get where she is coming from but I think I needed a bit more support from her burnt-out self to pull it all together for my burnt-out self.  I also realised when reading this that I’m not that particularly burnt-out anymore but I think this book would have had great power coming out of lockdown although I do acknowledge that it took so long to get any real sense of normality back that this free approach to living and the environment was just not possible then.

What we need to do is commit “to a lifetime of engagement: to noticing the world around you, t0 actively looking for small distillations of beauty, to making time to contemplate and reflect.” Spending time sharing how the author achieves this was very involving and she is very strong at crystalizing the special moments in some captivating writing but perhaps for me, personally, the sense of transformation and inspiration I was hoping for was not quite there.

Enchantment was published in 2023 by Faber and Faber.

Seining Along Chesil- Sarah Acton (2022)

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From the upstairs room where I am writing this I have glimpses between the houses opposite of the sea at Chesil Beach.  This extraordinary 18 mile stretch of “storm driven barrier” was the inspiration for Ian McEwan’s tale of doomed love (2007) and JM Falkner’s classic adventure tale “Moonfleet” (1898) and its unique attraction has been celebrated by poets, including Sarah Acton, the author of this non-fiction work.

The fact that this is somewhere special impresses on every visit.  For an eight-mile section within 10 minutes walk from my house it can only be accessed by crossing the Fleet Lagoon, in past times, flat-bottomed boasts known as “trows” helped with this.

As well as being a place of great geological interest (I visited here on a school Geography field trip as it was part of my O Level syllabus) for many, many generations it provided a source of income for Dorset people.  A method of catching the mackerel which at certain points of the year swarmed into the shallows was developed using nets, thrown most often from a specially designed boat, a “lerret”.  This now almost lost form of fishing, “seining”, is the subject of Sarah Acton’s book subtitled “Voices From A Dorset Fishing Community.”

I have never fished and like most omnivores have no real understanding of how the food we eat reaches our plate, neither in the present nor the past but there was something very captivating about Sarah Acton’s study.  It helps that she is a poet and can talk about the Beach as it “roars and stings, silver shoals of memory dart beneath the sea surface like fragments of mirrors, as memory triggers memory”, finding every opportunity to reinforce the uniqueness of this location but she has also produced an oral history, reminiscences of the last generations who attempted to support themselves financially in this way.  These are men and women who lived their lives according to the sea, men who missed the upbringing of their children, youngsters who skipped school, the elderly who chose to spend much of their retirement on the shingle, all hypnotised by the thrill of the catch and the ebb and flow of the sea.

These were people who did not always do things by the book, large catches were unpredictable, the mystique of smuggling had always touched these coastline families and their ancestors.  They spent their hours in the water yet many could not swim.  They talk of individuals whose achievements have become the stuff of legends, of the most successful families, of crafts and activities which are pretty much redundant.  The same experiences are given a viewpoint from different individuals with the repetition in this case enhancing the sense of the oral tradition.  As the demand for mackerel declined their earnings became more sporadic but they lived with one eye on the waters.  There is a perhaps apocryphal story of pall-bearers who abandoned their fisherman friend’s coffin as they got the call of the sea.

It is all a bit of a fish-stew this book as the author is supported by contributions by different writers on the geology, on boat building and the history of the Fleet Lagoon and this all adds to the layering of this location which is very much brought to life here.  I’ve lived in Dorset just over a year and have barely dipped my toe into local history since I’ve been here (see “The Village That Died For England” by Patrick Wright and I have read the very successful 2022 debut novel by Joanna Quinn, “The Whalebone Theatre”).  There is still a huge amount to discover about my local environment and Sarah Acton here makes the history of this particular location very memorable.

Seining Along Chesil was published in the UK in 2022 by Little Toller Books.

Unleash The Magnificent You! – Christopher Bradbury (2022)

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January is the month for self-help books. “It’s February now!” I hear you cry, “we don’t have to bother with any of that New Year’s Resolution stuff! ” but indulge me a while.  Firstly, I read this in January and more importantly, as we all suspect, the first month of the year is not the best for lasting, positive change.  On a recent health-check a very astute nurse said weight-loss plans are probably not best begun at this time of year when there are unopened Christmas treats lurking and that three quarters full bottle of Baileys calling out to you on the cold January nights so I’m pleased to tell you that Christopher Bradbury’s inspiring self-help book is not just for January and that Magnificent You can be unleashed the whole year round!

There’s no doubt the author’s an optimist- just look at that cover promising us a “Gazillion ways to turbocharge your life”.  I didn’t count up to verify but certainly any of even the smallest changes suggested has the potential to transform lives.

What is provided here is an overview in short snappy chapters full of pearls of wisdom.  There’s little new in the world of self-help, the reason why some succeed more than others is the way in which help is presented and how it is taken on board by the individual.  I like this general overview approach.  It starts by getting the reader to examine personal values, identifying the most important for you as an individual and encouraging thought on ways to stick to them.  Potential is unleashed when these values are combined with your vision and Christopher Bradbury is on hand to help with this.

He does so in 60 sections and 380 (in the hardback edition) motivational pages.  He suggests we can pick and choose the sections which feel most appropriate- I’d say don’t do that, find time to read the whole thing.  I’m not a parent so I might have decided to skip the parenting section, for example, but there’s so much good advice therein which I could apply to other situations that I would be missing out.

I made notes and I’m glad I did as I now have a little personalised handbook on areas such as kindness and compassion, fear, flexibility, thoughts and emotions, worry, gratitude – the list goes on.  He’s practical as well and there’s the odd good statistic to back things up, which makes me happy.  Here are my Top 3:

Only 10% of what we worry about actually happens- therefore 90% is wasted energy.

Only 3% of people write down their goals and these people achieve 5-10 times as much as the other 97%

And one to stop you in your tracks:

The average smartphone user checks their phone 63 times a day, 70% within 5 minutes of waking up.

I also want to add a couple of sayings to help with everyday life.  Take a bow the one beloved by “Love Island” participants, “It is what it is”- but then it really is and taking this on board would remove much stress over what you cannot control and slightly cheesy but none the less effective for that is “Yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery.  But today is a gift, so enjoy it before its gone.”

There will inevitably be moments when the author’s whistlestop tour approach will have you wanting more detail and I for one would welcome a bibliography or further reading suggestions linked to the areas raised but he does always provide enough information to start you well onto your road for change.

As a general self-help book this is strong and the emphasis and linking to personal core values (if you only do one exercise make sure it is the one that starts the book which encourages you to identify these) makes it stronger and seem more relevant.  Go on, get that Magnificent You unleashed!

Unleash The Magnificent You is published by Lightning Source and is available to purchase on Amazon.  Many thanks to the author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

In Perfect Harmony – Singalong Pop In 70s Britain – Will Hodgkinson (2022)

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Here’s a book from my “What I Should Have Read in 2022” list.  Its focus is 1970’s pop music.  Looking back from our 21st Century position when we think of the 1970’s we probably give greater importance to punk, glam rock and disco which certainly made a lasting impression in terms of visual style but did not last that long as a market force.  The music with the most longevity throughout the decade can be classed as singalong pop.

Will Hodgkinson studies an era where the first number one of 1971 was Clive Dunn’s “Grandad” and rounding things off so helpfully 10 years later was St. Winifred’s School Choir and “There’s No-One Quite Like Grandma”.  So did nothing change during the 1970s?  Still celebrating grandparents!  Why did singalong pop exert such mass appeal for the whole of the decade.  The author explores this and basically it is because Britain was so grim during this time that we needed pop music to lift the spirits!

Perhaps the inspiration for much of this came from an American song from the late 1960s, “Sugar Sugar”.  This was marketed as being by a cartoon group, recorded by anonymous session singers and was disposable bubblegum music at its finest and importantly, was a massive worldwide hit.  For a time, the song became more important than the artists.  The UK responded to this by session musicians recording singles and then considering the formation of a group to perform afterwards – take a bow Edison Lighthouse, Brotherhood Of Man, Bay City Rollers, the whole range of singles put out by Jonathan King, or 10CC in embryonic form.  One session singer Tony Burrows famously appeared in three (some say four) different acts on the same episode of “Top Of The Pops”.

And then came glam- stomping, singalong music geared towards and enjoyed by a younger audience- led by Marc Bolan, whose innovative influence on British pop has now been somewhat lost followed swiftly by Slade, Wizzard, Suzi Quatro, Mud, Sweet et al, with an even younger audience being feted by Messrs Osmond, Cassidy and Jackson.  Will Hodgkinson explores and analyses all this with interviews, contemporary views and what was going on at the time.  A sudden powercut plunging British homes into darkness could be enlivened by a family singsong of “Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep.”

This is a phenomenon mainly but not exclusively British and also had something to do with huge audiences for TV light entertainment shows, TV advertising jingles and theme tunes and pop music as a regular feature of children’s TV  but mainly a country that ricocheted between Heath, Wilson and then Callaghan as Prime Ministers in a time of strikes, inflation, high unemployment needed something to feel cheered up by.

Given all that can we expect a New Seekers, Boney M, Tony Orlando and Dawn revival in 2023?!! Just nobody mention Gary Glitter….

In Perfect Harmony was published by Nine Eight Books in 2022.

All The Lies They Did Not Tell- Pablo Trincia (2022)

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Amazon had this as one of their monthly free Prime Reads choices back in July 2022.  Its subtitle “The True Story Of Satanic Panic In An Italian Community” had me interested and remembering my desire to read more true crime I went for it.

This investigative work focuses on what became known as the Devils Of The Bassa Modenese Case which I had not heard of but which caused a huge furore in the late 1990s and led to 16 children being removed from families, convictions and acquittals and a number of deaths of adults associated with the case.

Pablo Trincia’s research into this led to a podcast with investigative journalist Alessia Rafanelli and evolved into this book which has been translated from the Italian by Elettra Pauletto.  Structurally, it does resemble a podcast eschewing a strictly chronological approach to focus on those involved and their stories with the interweaving and retreading of material that this structure involves.  Initially, I found it a little confusing to separate the families but this soon falls into place.

The events are extraordinary.  It is hard to imagine what happened here and the snowballing of such panics but similar things were happening in other countries and can be attributed to the way children were questioned by authorities.  Concerns about a family of vulnerable children led to tales of horrific satanic abuse involving almost everyone these children knew of.  Sexual abuse, torture, rituals, decapitations of cats and children killing other children in buildings and cemeteries horrified authorities who began widescale arrests, family separations and trials.

How much was true and how it came about became the author’s obsession.  He says;

“The story was like a black hole.  The more I looked into it, the more it seemed to bend social and behavioural norms and alter the relationship between cause and effect- things I’d always taken for granted.  It seemed like a parallel universe where everything was deformed.”

The author got lucky as he got hold of much information from a couple of people who had been totally driven by the cases and had lots of documentation and who had both died since the trials and from that he began to piece together what had actually happened.  Was this a case of false memory and how could that have affected so many children or was Satanism thriving in this small part of Catholic Italy in the 1990s?  It’s a sobering, involving account.  It is hard to believe that something like this could ever happen again, it reflects a terrifying moment in the history of abuse investigations where circumstances proved ripe for these life-destroying accusations.

All The Lies They Did Not Tell was published by Amazon Crossing in 2022.

Carefree Black Girls – Zeba Blay (Square Peg 2021)

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This is a difficult review to write for a white middle-aged man and I am sure that the author would appreciate the fact that I would find it difficult- it means that the issues she raises have hit home.

I selected this book on the basis of its subtitle “A Celebration Of Black Women In Pop Culture”.  I have often used this site to applaud the contribution of Black women within music, the arts and literature and thought this celebration was something I really wanted to be a part of.  The subtitle is not inaccurate, it is a celebration, but not quite what I had anticipated.

The author is central to this work, she is Ghanaian who has become an American citizen in recent years and works as a film critic and commentator on culture.  She also has struggled with fragile mental health, with suicide attempts and attributes this, at least in part, as her experience of being a Black woman in America.

You can appreciate from this the tone would not be as celebratory as I had anticipated.  An author’s note warns the reader to “be tender with yourself” if likely to be triggered by the issues in this book.

Zeba Blay studies the Black American female experience in terms of racist expectations and stereotypes borne from white supremacy including the body, sexual identity, skin tone, childhood and the quest to be “carefree” using women from popular culture as evidence.  Her arguments are powerful and impressive.  I do not feel it appropriate for me to comment on these truths other than to encourage a reading and an absorbing of what the author is saying.  I’m just going to write 10 quotes from the book which will be enough for you to know whether you are prepared to go on this journey with her.  I read the US edition before publication over here.  I see the UK edition has a Foreword by radio DJ Clara Amfo which may put some of this into context for the British reader.

I’ll give you the quotes as they appear chronologically within the book and also the section in which you will find them.  They will be out of context, perhaps, but I have not distorted them in any way.

“And writing about Black women is the thing that put me together again, that got me through and helped me become reacquainted with the concept of joy and freedom” (Introduction)

“To say that Black women are everything, are indeed essential to American Culture, to the global Zeitgeist is simply to observe things as they actually are” (Introduction)

“… to exist in a Black body is to exist in a persistent state of precarity, to be in constant anticipation of some form of violence” (Bodies)

“Black women’s bodies were once legally considered property.  They were bought and sold, traded and loaned” (She’s A Freak)

“How can a piece of property be raped?  Black women were therefore assumed as always being sexually available and this way of seeing them was sanctioned by the American government” (She’s A Freak)

“The fact that one in four Black girls will be abused before the age of 18, that one in five Black women are survivors of rape and yet for every fifteen Black women who are assaulted just one reports her rape comes as no surprise” (She’s A Freak)

“If Beyonce had a deeper complexion would her dominance within the Zeitgeist be as ubiquitous as it is” (Extra Black)

“My Blackness doesn’t make me depressed, but being Black in this world can be depressing.” (Strong Black Lead)

“the exuberance of Black joy springs forth from Black despair.  Collectively, we made a way out of no way.” (Strong Black Lead)

“Black women are killed in America at a higher rate than women of any other race.  Trans Black women are killed at an even higher rate.” (Strong Black Lead)

Carefree Black Girls is published in the UK by Square Peg on October 21st 2021.  Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.