When I Had a Little Sister by Catherine Simpson

When I Had a Little Sister by Catherine Simpson

When I had a Little Sister by Catherine Simpson is a searingly honest and heartbreaking account of growing up in a farming family, and of Catherines search for understanding into what led her younger sister to kill herself at 46. Its a story of sisters and sacrifice, grief and reclamation, and of the need to speak the unspeakable.

‘This is not a depressing read, but rather a rich family history that seeks to find a way to address the unspokenSimpson is a precise and skilled writer… This memoir about Tricia, but also about a family going from five to four to three, and about the history of a Lancashire farm, is a considerable achievement’
Cathy Rentzenbrink, The Times

'A superb memoir….. Tricia's heart-rending biography is interwoven with welcome portraits of Simpson's bonkers ancestors, many of which are laugh-out-loud funny' Leaf Arbuthnott, Sunday Times

‘Simpson’s writing – fillets the little details that reveal the profundity and bravery of her sister’s weakening struggle with mental illness … I found this book gripping and heart-wrenching. It sticks with me’ Mail on Sunday

‘Catherine Simpson’s tormented, riveting and bleakly funny memoir analyses her sister’s life to try to find out why she killed herself; in the process it becomes a moving evocation of the muck-spattered realities of modern farm life … That she resolves to write and “leave behind a lifetime of silence” can only be our gain, and dour rural taciturnity’s loss’ Richard Benson, Observer

‘Something else is on these pages: frustration and anger – with Tricia, with herself and with other relatives – that if only the family tradition of silence and the suppression of feelings had been challenged earlier things might have been different. In analysing the inherited values and habits of a lifetime, Simpson breaks the silence and liberates herself’ James Robertson, author of And the Land Lay Still

‘Catherine Simpson’s second book, carries a subtitle – “The Story of a Farming Family who Never Spoke.” Don’t be fooled. This book’s secret weapon is the remarkable voice that fires from the page to the heart with no hesitation at all. Just Wonderful. ’ Janice Galloway, author of The Trick is to Keep Breathing

Catherine Simpson’s debut novel, Truestory (Sandstone Press, 2015) won her a Scottish Book Trust New Writer’s Award. It was inspired by her experiences raising her autistic daughter Nina. She and Nina now campaign for Autism Acceptance. In 2016 Catherine received a Hawthornden Fellowship. Born and brought up on a Lancashire farm, Catherine lives in Edinburgh.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780008301637
ISBN 10	0008301638
Title	When I Had a Little Sister
Author	Catherine Simpson
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	HarperCollins Publishers
Year published	2019-02-07
Number of pages	384
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.