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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Personal Space: Stephanie Danler Never Thought She Would Write This Memoir

On this episode of Personal Space: The Memoir Show, Sari Botton interviews Stephanie Danler, author of the 2016 bestselling novel Sweetbitter, and now the memoir Stray, just published by Knopf. In the book, Danler poignantly tackles a variety of issues, including: the destructive nature of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-05-21 17:00:57 UTC ]
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How indie rocker Mikel Jollett overcame the toxic events in his life

"Hollywood Park," a new memoir from the frontman for the Airborne Toxic Event, recounts his childhood in L.A.'s Synanon cult — and his recovery. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-05-20 16:33:40 UTC ]
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Hutchinson to publish Bananarama memoir

Hutchinson has acquired Bananarama's memoir Really Saying Something in a "strong" six-figure deal, and will publish this October. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-20 05:26:25 UTC ]
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The Path Not Taken

Stephanie Danler’s memoir Stray invites us to look closely at our own life: our family dynamics, our loss, our trauma, and the moments of happiness that still exist within that fragile frame. With deep introspection and stunning prose, Danler tells us about the years she spent after writing her... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-05-19 11:00:55 UTC ]
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“Miss Aluminum,” Susanna Moore’s Memoir of Trauma and Transformation

Naomi Fry on “Miss Aluminum,” a new memoir by Susanna Moore, who is known for her 1995 thriller “In the Cut.” Continue reading at New Yorker

[ New Yorker | 2020-05-19 10:00:00 UTC ]
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New & Noteworthy, From a Rock Memoir to Chinese Surrealism

A selection of recent books of interest; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-05-19 09:00:05 UTC ]
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MacDougall's dog walking memoir to Bonnier Books UK

Bonnier Books UK has acquired Kate MacDougall's story of the dog walking business she founded in her mid-twenties, London’s No1 Dog Walking Agency. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-19 04:39:15 UTC ]
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Book Deals: Week of May 18, 2020

Among the big deals this week are a new book by rapper Gucci Mane, a memoir of addiction and recovery by a politician and her son, and a nonfiction book by the cocreator of Showtime’s Billions. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-05-15 04:00:00 UTC ]
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André Leon Talley’s Tales From the Dark Side

The juiciest fashion memoir of the year is out. But is it a tell-all, a tragedy or a harbinger of things to come? Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-05-14 15:03:20 UTC ]
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Coronavirus Worklife: South Africa’s Imagnary House Weathers Lockdown

'We saw all bookstores closed' in South Africa's lockdown, says Brad Harris, children's book publisher at Imagnary House. The post Coronavirus Worklife: South Africa’s Imagnary House Weathers Lockdown appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-05-12 16:04:47 UTC ]
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20 new books coming out today.

You know what they say: April showers bring May books. Here’s today’s brand-new batch coming to (virtual) bookstores near you. Consider this a friendly reminder that it’s never a bad idea to support your local indie. * Samantha Harvey, The Shapeless Unease (Grove Press) “This memoir churns deep... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-05-12 13:45:17 UTC ]
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She thought her past was painful; then Stephanie Danler wrote about it

Readers thought Stephanie Danler's debut novel, "Sweetbitter," was autobiography. The reality, in her memoir "Stray," is far more painfully dramatic. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-05-12 13:00:01 UTC ]
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Personal Space: Maggie Downs Thought No One Wanted to Read About Grief

On this episode of Personal Space: The Memoir Show, Sari Botton interviews Maggie Downs, author of the memoir and travelogue, Braver Than You Think: Around the World On the Trip of My (Mother’s) Lifetime about the year she spent traveling around the world, fulfilling many of her mother’s unmet... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-05-11 18:38:48 UTC ]
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Darran Anderson’s granular memoir of the Troubles

“We are only sheltered from tragedy”, he writes in “Inventory”, “by the thin ice that we call time.” Continue reading at The Economist

[ The Economist | 2020-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sheltering: Mikel Jollett Challenges the Memoir Form

On this episode of Sheltering, Maris Kreizman speaks with Mikel Jollett about his memoir, Hollywood Park. Hollywood Park is about Jollett’s experience growing up in a cult, and his escape and fallout from the childhood trauma he experienced. He talks about believing his life was normal as a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-05-08 19:00:54 UTC ]
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In ‘Stray,’ Stephanie Danler Asks How a Victim Becomes a Perpetrator

The author of “Sweetbitter” has written a memoir about the pain she’s suffered from — and caused to — those she’s loved. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-05-08 09:00:05 UTC ]
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Hashtag Press buys memoir of reality star and actress Jess Impiazzi

Independent publisher Hashtag Press will publish Jess Impiazzi's memoir Silver Linings. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-07 17:36:02 UTC ]
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A Fate Worse Than Gravity: A Conversation with Ellen O’Connell Whittet

IT IS ONLY IN the second half of Ellen O’Connell Whittet’s poignant and exquisite memoir about ballet (and other causes of female pain), What You Become in Flight, that it dawns on the reader — or on this reader, at least — that she’s invoking the word “flight” in two senses: the balletic sense... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-05-07 17:00:08 UTC ]
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