Showing results for "Mum" in Biographies & Memoirs

Elizabeth Burton-Phillips is a teacher, an ordinary middle-class mother who had always tried to do the best for her children. She never imagined that her identical twin sons, who had been doing so well at school, would become involved in drugs. She was shocked when they were suspended from school for smoking cannabis, but this was just the start of a terrible, unimaginable journey - culminating in the knock on the door in the early hours by the police. They gave her the devastating news that her son Nick had killed himself in despair at his heroin addiction.

Tressa Middleton made UK history when she became Britain's youngest mum in 2006 aged just 12 years and eight months. Her case provoked shock and outrage - but the truth behind the headlines was far sadder than anyone could ever have imagined. Born into a life of poverty and neglect, Tressa was forced to grow up fast when was she taken into care at just four years old. She was returned to her mother's chaotic world, but by the age of seven, she was being abused by her own brother and at 11 years old she fell pregnant with his child. For years she kept his dark secret in an attempt to hold her family together until the truth threatened to destroy her completely.

We are all familiar with the hormones, the illogical rage, the awful time keeping and the daily dramarama. However, you don’t know that they will steal your stuff (and claim you never had it in the first place), bruise your self-esteem just as you hit your melancholy midlife and love/hate you all day long with exhausting regularity seconds after turning 13. This stage of motherhood is not for the fainthearted. These are the loneliest of maternal times filled with pockets of shame you cannot share with anyone. You’re going to need help getting through this.

Being a mum is an incredible journey, a remarkable experience that changes how we look, how we feel, who we are. As mothers we are strong, protective and proud. We feel a love like no other. But being a parent can be hard, too. It challenges us physically, mentally, emotionally. There are the days where just managing to fit a shower in amidst the endless feeding, entertaining young children and surviving on a lack of sleep feels like an achievement.

The true story of an abused childhood, of shocking brutality and life as the daughter of notorious serial killer and master manipulator Rose West. You're 21 years old. Police arrive on the doorstep of your house, 25 Cromwell Street, with a warrant to search the garden for the remains of your older sister you didn't know was dead. Bones are found, and they are from more than one body. And so the nightmare begins. You are the daughter of Fred and Rose West.

Longstanding political columnist and commentator Daniel Finkelstein's powerful memoir explores both his mother and his father’s devastating experiences of persecution, resistance and survival during the Second World War.

I’ve Lost My Mum tells the true, soul-baring, account of a daughter who wants to make a difference to those whose lives have been devastated by dementia. Cassandra’s raw and deeply moving journey shares her own struggle for strength as well as invaluable insights into this invisible illness. This heartfelt and compelling story not only provides a deeper understanding of this cruel condition but gives hope that it’s possible to find peace when someone you love is lost between worlds.

Writing this memoir has to be one of the hardest things I have ever achieved. Out of respect for the dead, this story has been told exactly how it happened. I was born in 1985 in Lancashire, England, to two alcoholic parents. Having selfish parents left me exposed to abuse, poverty, and crime. My loving grandparents helped me the best they could at the weekends, but life was barely survivable.

The incredible true story of four ordinary working mums from Yorkshire who took on an extraordinary challenge and broke a world record along the way, proving it's never too late to go on a life-changing adventure, experience the beauty and power of the elements, push the very limits of your abilities and rediscover who you are.

She's back! The Unmumsy Mum has put pen to paper (or fingers to the keyboard!) once more to bring you the next instalment of her life as mum to two young boys, documenting motherhood exactly as she finds it. Her words have made mums, dads and grandparents everywhere laugh and cry in equal measure. In The Unmumsy Mum Diary, Sarah shares with us a year in her life as a mum, wife, blogger and best-selling author.

Known for her sharp, witty and surreal view on everyday life, Lucy shares the unpredictable craziness of being a mum in this brilliant and laugh-out-loud 'mumoir'. Mums everywhere will recognise the madness of it all. Like when Lucy was hospitalised during her third trimester with chest pains but it turned out to be a burrito. Or when she was so tired at the park she forgot her own child's name.

Casey's Unit is, as ever, full of troubled, disaffected pupils, and new arrival Leo is something of a conundrum. Thirteen-year-old Leo isn't a bad lad - in fact he's generally polite and helpful, but he's in danger of permanent exclusion for repeatedly absconding and unauthorised absences. Despite letters being sent home regularly, his mother never turns up for any appointments, and when the school calls home she always seems to have an excuse.

A 'take no prisoners' approach to life has seen Paul Carter heading to some of the world's most remote, wild and dangerous places as a contractor in the oil business. Taking postings in some of the world's wildest and most remote regions, Paul has worked in locations as far-flung as the North Sea, Middle East, Borneo and Tunisia and as flat out dangerous as Columbia, Nigeria and Russia, with some of the maddest and strangest people you could ever hope not to meet.

Born out of wedlock in Dublin in 1937, Phyllis grew up in a tough, church-run orphanage. She thought by fulfilling her dream to become a nurse in England, her life might change, but her loveless childhood predisposed a loveless marriage and things began to spiral out of control for her and for her daughter, Sally. Looking for the answers to why both their lives went so spectacularly wrong led Sally to ask questions about the real identity of her mother: 'who was she? Why was she abandoned...I needed to find answers before it was too late.'

You're invited to eavesdrop as a mother reads out her teenage diaries to her daughter. Funny, candid, poignant and brave, this weekly podcast is both living memoir and an investigation into what makes (and breaks) a woman. No scripts, no prep; just 40-year-old (diary) gold being unearthed. Even Jenny doesn't know what's going to come up as she lays bare her inner teen world to Lilika. Their motto is 'we go there', so what could possibly go wrong?

In this wry, resonant and darkly funny memoir, journalist Grace Timothy explores a question most women will face at some point: if becoming a mother means the person you were before has gone, who exactly is left in its place? Best described as The Wrong Knickers for mums, in Mum Face Grace explores motherhood as an issue of identity.

Seriously Mum, What's an Alpaca? is the frank and charming story of a brave couple who risk everything to move to Spain to breed alpacas. Their intention is to make a living, but first they must negotiate their way through the Spanish property market, local characters, rogue builders and the worst weather Andalucía has seen for 100 years.

Alan and Lorna experience the joy, but also the heartbreak of alpaca breeding, picking up an assortment of stray animals on the way.

Mind Over Mother is full of light bulb moments of realisation. It will have you learning, laughing and loving yourself through the journey of motherhood. You will learn to address the most important conversation you'll ever have - the one inside your head, because investing in your mental health is the best gift you can offer yourself and your baby.

Renowned as a BBC journalist, Victoria Derbyshire has spent 20 years finding the human story behind the headlines. In 2015 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. With honesty and openness, she decided to live out her treatment and recovery in the spotlight in a series of video diaries. Victoria has kept a diary since she was nine years old, and in Dear Cancer, Love Victoria she shares her day-to-day experiences of life following diagnosis and coming to terms with a future that wasn't planned.

I love being a Spice Girl, but what I am proudest of is being a mum. Even though I had all the real-life girl power of the actual Spice Girls on speed-dial, my incredible partner and my mum, I had so many worries and questions I couldn't always ask out loud. What I really, really wanted was one easy-to-digest, honest book that would give me support without judgment - that might even make me chuckle occasionally.