The BBC’s Fergal Keane: ‘The breakdowns get harder to recover from each time’

The former BBC war reporter, now special correspondent, on the terror of PTSD, his tips for living with it day to day, and the people and poets he admiresDuring a career spanning more than 30 years, BBC special correspondent Fergal Keane has covered brutal conflicts in South Africa, Rwanda and Bosnia. It’s taken a lasting toll on his mental health, and in 2020 he stepped back from frontline reporting, revealing that he’s suffering from acute PTSD. In his memoir The Madness, newly published in paperback, he goes into greater detail, powerfully describing multiple breakdowns, alcoholism, and the inherited trauma that shaped his Irish childhood, as well as the resilience he’s found in himself. He will be talking at the Edinburgh International book festival on 17 August.What part of The Madness was hardest to write?Most difficult was what it was like to be in a psychiatric hospital. People talk about going mad and it conjures up all kinds of stereotypical images, but it’s terrifying, it’s this implosion. I’ve never been so afraid in my life. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2023-08-06 08:30:06 UTC ]

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Looking back, Sarah Cooper 'wasn't ready' for viral fame: 'I suffered a lot of humiliation'

In a new memoir about her sudden rise, Cooper, who came to prominence lip-syncing Donald Trump, faces the personal and professional costs of going viral. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-10-02 10:00:13 UTC ]
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'Jeopardy' vet Amy Schneider runs the board on drugs, polyamory, transphobia and more

Schneider's memoir 'In the Form of a Question' mines the 'Jeopardy!' star's life — acid trips, polyamory, fame, fears and how Leo DiCaprio didn't do it for her. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-09-30 15:38:29 UTC ]
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Book Review: ‘Collision of Power,’ by Martin Baron

“Collision of Power,” Martin Baron’s memoir of his tenure as the paper’s executive editor, is a gripping chronicle of politics and journalism in a period of instability for both. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-09-30 09:00:50 UTC ]
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Book Review: ‘Coming and Going,’ by Jim Goldberg

“Coming and Going” is the photographer Jim Goldberg’s visual memoir of three generations in his family, from 1980 to today. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-09-29 09:02:30 UTC ]
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Interview: Patrick Stewart

“I acted Macbeth for exactly 365 days,” says the actor, whose new memoir is “Making It So.” “The role got into me so deeply it dominated my life at the time and caused me to drink too much alcohol after the performance was over. No other role I have played has affected me so profoundly.” Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-09-28 09:00:35 UTC ]
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Obituary: Echo Brown

Author and performer Echo Brown, widely praised for her genre-fluid YA novels that blend memoir and magical realism, died September 16 from renal failure. She was 39. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-09-28 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The Painful Afterlife of a Cruel Policy

Across memoir and fiction, Fae Myenne Ng has explored the true cost of the Chinese Exclusion era. Continue reading at The Atlantic

[ The Atlantic | 2023-09-26 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Cassidy Hutchinson Reappears. She Has More Trump Stories to Tell.

“I would like not to be a hermit,” the former White House aide says upon the publication of a memoir about her journey down a political rabbit hole. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-09-23 12:54:00 UTC ]
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Audiobook Review: ‘Alive and Well Enough,’ by Jeff Daniels

The actor’s audio-only memoir delivers songs, stories and scenes with humor and vulnerability. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-09-22 09:01:07 UTC ]
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Exclusive: See the cover for Amy Lin’s Here After.

Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Amy Lin’s debut memoir Here After, which will be published by Zibby Books in March. Here’s a bit more about the book from the publisher: Here After is an intimate story of deep love followed by dizzying loss; a stunning, taut memoir from debut... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-09-20 14:00:02 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Daily: September 19, 2023

Kate Roberts considers the latest wave of chronic illness memoirs, which entwine the personal with the sociopolitical. | Lit Hub Memoir It’s a banger week for new books: Here are 28 out today. | The Hub 38 literary movies and TV shows to watch this fall (brought to you by writers who deserve... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-09-19 10:30:38 UTC ]
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Book Review: ‘Father and Son,’ by Jonathan Raban

Jonathan Raban’s “Father and Son” is a memoir of illness and recovery paired with a parental history. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-09-18 09:01:46 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Daily: September 15, 2023

Terrell Tannen recalls trying to adapt Jim Harrison’s novels for Hollywood—and making a friend in Harrison along the way. | Lit Hub Memoir “I can’t approve of this movie, and by all rights, I could hate it. But I am enthralled.” Annie Berke revisits The Notebook adaptation, (nearly) 20 years... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-09-15 10:30:28 UTC ]
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A Memoir of Contested Illness That Takes On the Legacy of Hysteria

Emily Wells is interested in what her doctors see when they look at her: a depressed or anxious woman, perhaps even one who is faking sickness for attention. Continue reading at New Yorker

[ New Yorker | 2023-09-14 00:04:31 UTC ]
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Pulitzer Prizes Expand Eligibility to Noncitizens

The jury for the memoir category had raised concerns that the citizenship requirement was excluding a large part of American culture. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-09-12 21:31:43 UTC ]
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Book Deals: Week of September 11, 2023

Holt buys a posthumous memoir from Hilary Mantel, Liselle Sambury sells a YA dark academia fantasy to McElderry, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-09-08 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Why Would Anyone Become a Politician?

Rory Stewart’s new memoir about his life in politics details his dawning realization that the game was not worth the effort. Continue reading at The Atlantic

[ The Atlantic | 2023-09-07 12:26:58 UTC ]
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8 Amazing New Nonfiction Books to Read in September 2023

You *can* handle the truth with these eight incredible nonfiction reads to kick your fall reading season off right, including Thicker than Water: A Memoir by Kerry Washington. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-09-07 10:32:00 UTC ]
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‘Provocative’ new book to showcase four decades of Hilary Mantel’s work

The wide-ranging collection A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing features subjects from her health struggles to Robocop and has been announced a year after the author’s deathA collection of journalistic writing by Hilary Mantel is to be published next month, just over a year after the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-09-07 05:00:18 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Daily: September 6, 2023

25 new novels we think you should read this fall. | Lit Hub Reading Lists Yiyun Li muses on class, money, joy, and luxury—for writers and their characters. | Lit Hub Memoir Where creatives went to play: Jonathan Miles captures the “potent cultural cocktail” of the French Riviera. | Lit Hub... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-09-06 10:30:23 UTC ]
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