Overview

From an explosive new literary talent, a searing, moving memoir of family, adolescence and sexuality 'You may not run away from the thing that you are because it comes and comes and comes as sure as you breathe.' This is the story of Yrsa Daley-Ward, and all the things that happened - 'even the Terrible Things (and God, there were Terrible Things)'. It's about her childhood in the north-west of England with her beautiful, careworn mother Marcia, Linford (the man formerly known as Dad, 'half-fun, half-frightening') and her little brother Roo, who sees things written in the stars. It's about growing up and discovering the power and fear of her own sexuality, of pitch grey days of pills and powder and encounters. It's about damage and pain, but also joy. Told with raw intensity, shocking honesty and the poetry of the darkest of fairy tales, The Terrible is a memoir of going under, losing yourself, and finding your voice.

Full Product Details

9781846149825

Table of Contents

Reviews

[Acclaim for Bone]One of the must-reads of the year -- Rohan Silva * Evening Standard * A stunning excavator of human heat and light, Yrsa Daley-Ward goes straight to the messy beating heart of animal attraction with bone, mesmerizing poems that strip bare the pain and beauty of negotiating longing, sex and love * Huffington Post * [bone] will hit you like a gut punch ... Some poems had me weeping; I printed others to pin to my wall for daily inspiration -- Marta Bausells * Elle * Beautiful ... Moving ... Touching -- Sarah Brett * BBC Radio 5 Live * Sharing is her form of survival ... Yrsa's Jamaican and Nigerian heritage, femininity, sexuality and mental health are just some of the themes explored within this powerful collection of a woman facing tumultuous inner and external battles head on, delivered with a hard-hitting directness, yet with inflections of optimism throughout that are bound to touch readers to their core -- Review for 'bone' * I-D Magazine * an expert storyteller. of the rarest. and purest kind--daley-ward is uncannily attentive andin tune to the things beneath life. beneath the skin. beneath the weather of the everyday. -- nayyirah waheed It's been one of my favourites so far. -- Florence Welch in W Magazine, speaking about 'bone'

Elegant, daring, profound - confirms her abundant talent as a writer -- Arifa Akbar * Observer * Beautiful and harrowing . . . Daley-Ward writes with disarming honesty * Vogue * A major literary talent . . . speaks about the power and powerlessness that young women are subject to in a wholly fresh, clear-eyed way . . . you'll find it hard to come away from The Terrible without a stab of recognition in your chest * Stylist * Daley-Ward explores the connection between raw emotion and the mechanics of language with more wildness and tenacity than ever * Dazed * A rare combination of literary brilliance, originality of voice and a narrative that commands you to keep going until you've reached the last page . . . her prose is invigorating, razor-sharp and moves at the speed of light . . . Yrsa Daley-Ward is an explosive new talent and this book should not be missed -- Anna van Praagh * Evening Standard * Daley-Ward is a stylish writer, as well as an unusual voice . . . she has a knack for distilling wild emotions into precise imagery, for selecting insightful impressions. -- Francesca Angelini * Sunday Times * The Terrible is a lyrical piece of writing that oscillates between prose and poetry . . . Daley-Ward's lines land like dandelion spores, these weightless things that are somehow simultaneously profound -- Una Mullally * Irish Times Magazine * Daley-Ward has cooked a broth of dizzying emotions and touching moments down to a nuanced and taut account . . . there are so many flourishes of imagination and pathos here, that it's impossible not to get caught up in the torrential pace of the narrative . . .the result is one of the year's genuine must reads * Irish Independent * Daley-Ward combines beautifully crafted and deeply personal verse with impressive prose, bending the form of the memoir into her own genre -- Alexander Holmes * Metro * Daley-Ward is twenty-nine years old, but the events of her life more than justify the publication of this unflinching chronicle. -- Patricia Yaker Ekall * The Times Literary Supplement * The Terrible's raw yet lilting prose draws the reader in at once. Unpredictable shifts in form and structure - from prose to poetry and script - are refreshingly disorientating. This is both a defiant book and a defiantly inventive one. -- Patricia Yaker Ekall * The Times Literary Supplement * Daley-Ward is twenty-nine years old, but the events of her life more than justify the publication of this unflinching chronicle. -- Patricia Yaker Ekall * The Times Literary Supplement *

[Acclaim for Bone] One of the must-reads of the year -- Rohan Silva * Evening Standard * A stunning excavator of human heat and light, Yrsa Daley-Ward goes straight to the messy beating heart of animal attraction with bone, mesmerizing poems that strip bare the pain and beauty of negotiating longing, sex and love * Huffington Post * [bone] will hit you like a gut punch ... Some poems had me weeping; I printed others to pin to my wall for daily inspiration -- Marta Bausells * Elle * Beautiful ... Moving ... Touching -- Sarah Brett * BBC Radio 5 Live * Sharing is her form of survival ... Yrsa's Jamaican and Nigerian heritage, femininity, sexuality and mental health are just some of the themes explored within this powerful collection of a woman facing tumultuous inner and external battles head on, delivered with a hard-hitting directness, yet with inflections of optimism throughout that are bound to touch readers to their core -- Review for 'bone' * I-D Magazine * an expert storyteller. of the rarest. and purest kind--daley-ward is uncannily attentive and in tune to the things beneath life. beneath the skin. beneath the weather of the everyday. -- nayyirah waheed

Author Information

Yrsa Daley-Ward is a writer, poet and actress of mixed Jamaican and Nigerian heritage. Since publishing her first poetry collection, the widely beloved bone, Yrsa has been in a constant state of exciting creative output, which earns her continued critical acclaim. Her follow-up book, the lyrical memoir The Terrible, garnered glowing praise and won her the prestigious PEN Ackerley Prize in 2019. Following that, she published The How, which NPR called ""a hopeful work of meditation and healing"" and has been taught in women's prisons around the world. Amidst all this, Yrsa continues to work and write in other areas of entertainment. In 2019, she worked closely with Beyonce to co-write Black Is King, ""a grand statement of African-diaspora pride and creative power"" (NYT) and has been adapting The Terrible for screen. As an actress, she played Grace Jones in Kwei-Armah's latest feature film. She splits her time between Brooklyn, New York and London.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available