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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Kat Chow on How Mourning Is Like Taxidermy

In her memoir “Seeing Ghosts,” the author recounts her mother’s death and her immigrant family’s numerous migrations, separations and losses, evoking the way grief entails a particular, perpetual sorrow. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-08-24 09:00:06 UTC ]
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HarperCollins Ireland scoops memoir by warden of Skellig Michael

HarperCollins Ireland has scooped a "unique" memoir by the warden of Skellig Michael, a remote Irish island. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-22 23:51:22 UTC ]
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James Whiteside isn’t a typical ballet star, and his memoir isn’t a typical ballet story

The American Ballet Theatre star has written a thoughtful collection of essays that gives readers insight into what it means to defy categorization. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-08-19 12:00:00 UTC ]
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‘Swan Dive’ gives voice to every suspicion you may harbor about professional ballet

Georgina Pazcoguin’s biting memoir is full of melodrama. It also has an important message. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-08-19 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Bodley Head acquires Werner Herzog memoir in two-book deal

The Bodley Head has acquired two titles from German filmmaker and storyteller Werner Herzog, including a memoir.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-18 19:49:03 UTC ]
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Werner Herzog to tell story of Japanese soldier who refused to surrender

The German film director has announced two new books: a memoir and The Twilight World, about a remarkable second world war officerWerner Herzog is writing a book about Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese soldier who took three decades to surrender after the end of the second world war.The esteemed German... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-08-18 12:56:08 UTC ]
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A Memoir’s Painful Question: Where Are You From?

“Names for Light,” by Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint, is a memoir recounted through the stories of family members. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-08-18 12:41:21 UTC ]
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Mirror Books to publish memoir from Christine McGuinness

Mirror Books has acquired worldwide rights from The Can Group to Christine McGuinness' first book A Beautiful Nightmare.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-18 11:33:49 UTC ]
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Column: Why Billie Jean King finally took control of her own story

As she releases her memoir "All In," tennis icon Billie Jean King discusses her career, her causes and "living truthfully." Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-08-17 13:00:35 UTC ]
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Elizabeth Barrett Browning was ahead of her time. ‘Two-Way Mirror’ does justice to her riveting life.

Fiona Sampson’s biography reads like a thriller, a memoir and a provocative piece of literary fiction. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-08-17 12:00:00 UTC ]
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He Spent 14 Years at Guantánamo. This Is His Story.

“Don’t Forget Us Here,” by Mansoor Adayfi with Antonio Aiello, is the memoir of a Yemeni man who claims he was kidnapped in Afghanistan, sold to the C.I.A. and sent to the detention camp in a case of mistaken identity. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-08-17 09:00:05 UTC ]
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How I Tracked Down the Hidden Lives of the Radical, Wealthy Morris Sisters

In 2008, I published my first book, Please Excuse My Daughter, a memoir about my mother and me and how I grew up, and it dipped a little into my mother’s family’s history, which was rich and interesting. Her mother’s uncle, Sam Golding, developed the neighborhood of Rego Park in Queens during... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-08-16 08:49:26 UTC ]
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Yellow Kite signs Blyth's 'extraordinarily powerful' memoir

Yellow Kite has signed Hope is Coming, Louise Blyth’s “extraordinarily powerful” memoir of grief, gratitude and enlightenment. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-16 07:57:45 UTC ]
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Michael J. Fox Reviews a Thoughtful Memoir on the Challenges of Living With Disability

In “I Live a Life Like Yours,” Jan Grue, a Norwegian professor, writes of living with a rare form of spinal muscular atrophy. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-08-15 09:00:03 UTC ]
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Pointing out racism in books is not an ‘attack’ – it’s a call for industry reform | Monisha Rajesh

I was called aggressive for criticising passages in Kate Clanchy’s memoir. But the real problem lies deep in the overwhelmingly white world of publishingIt started with a tweet. Kate Clanchy, author of Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me posted on her Twitter account that a reviewer on... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-08-13 13:51:20 UTC ]
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Icon bags Eloise's 'refreshing' debut on life with OCD and autism

Icon has landed journalist and debut author Marianne Eloise's memoir of life with obsessive compulsive disorder and autism. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-11 20:18:23 UTC ]
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Headline signs Me Too founder Tarana Burke's memoir

Headline will publish the memoir of Tarana Burke, the founder and activist behind the "Me Too" movement.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-11 20:11:16 UTC ]
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Cecily Strong has a raw new memoir about grief. That surprises her too.

The “Saturday Night Live” comedian’s “This Will All Be Over Soon” looks back at her beloved cousin’s cancer diagnosis and death. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-08-11 13:00:00 UTC ]
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On accountability and Andrew Cuomo’s rise-and-fall story

Yesterday morning, Rita Glavin—an attorney for Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, who has vigorously defended her client (including in a fifty-one-minute live interview on CNN) since a state report concluded that he sexually harassed eleven women—came out swinging again in a virtual... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review

[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2021-08-11 12:45:23 UTC ]
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8 Books That Illuminate the Hidden Histories of Hollywood

Hollywood. It’s one of those locations—it’s hard, somehow, to call it a concrete place—that conjures up all sorts of archetypes: the ruined writer, egomaniacal director, sleazy executive, out-of-control star. In writing my memoir Always Crashing in The Same Car—a book with elements of criticism,... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-08-11 11:00:00 UTC ]
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