85: Daffodils with Louise Beech

Unbroken: Healing Through Storytelling

I was so excited to interview the author Louise Beech, as I’ve not only read all of her books, both published and unpublished, but she’s a dear friend too!

It took many years and many rejections for Louise Beech to finally get a book deal in 2015. Her debut, How to be Brave, got to No4 on Amazon and was a Guardian Readers’ Pick; Maria in the Moon was described as ‘quirky, darkly comic and heartfelt’ by the Sunday Mirror; The Lion Tamer Who Lost shortlisted for the Popular Romantic Novel of 2019 at the RNA Awards and longlisted for the Polari Prize 2019; Call Me Star Girl longlisted for the Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize and was Best magazine’s Best Book of the Year 2019; I Am Dust was a Crime Magazine Monthly Pick; and This Is How We Are Human was a Clare Mackintosh Book Club pick.

Louise’s memoir Daffodils will be released in audiobook 1st April, exploring a shocking family suicide attempt and a difficult childhood. Nothing Else, her eight novel, will be released 23rd June.

Today we are going to explore writing a memoir and how that impacted her...

Some key points from our interview

• How even though she felt like she had been broken in the past, she’s not unbroken as she was never truly broken
• How she reversed her decision in writing her memoir after her mother jumped off the Humber bridge and miraculously survived
• How she wanted to look back over her difficult childhood, childhood trauma and the challenging relationship with her mother to make sense of it and possibly retrieve some of her deeply buried memories
• How growing up with a mother that has a narcissistic personality disorder shaped her into stepping into a mothering and nurturing role from a very young age
• How she knows that even though her mind has deeply buried memories around childhood sexual abuse, and she can’t currently access them, her body knows and remembers the trauma
• How from a very young age, writing has always been a therapy and escapism for her.

Hosted by Madeleine Black, the show will share stories of all the amazing people Madeleine has met on her own journey as an author/speaker and these stories will heal, motivate, inspire and bring hope when they share their wisdom and knowledge with her.
She really believes in the power that comes when we share our stories, that in fact we are not story tellers but story healers. Tune in to discover what helped them to stay unbroken and together we will discover that none of us are broken beyond repair.
You can find out more about Madeleine, her story and her memoir, Unbroken, from her website: https://madeleineblack.co.uk/
Watch edited highlights on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/c/MadeleineBlackUnbroken

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