Jeanette Winterson - Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

The Spectator“A marvelous book and a generous one...” This memoir is brave and beautiful, a testament to the forces of intelligence, heart and imagination...

The Independent“Begun as a final exorcism of the monster mother, ends with acceptance...” Around half of the book retraces familiar ground and may be more shocking for those who happened to miss the great stir that her bold debut caused in 1985. For the initiated, it remains compelling...

The Observer“By turns hilarious and harrowing...” Its many sparkling contradictions are what make me love it most...

Guardian“There is so much here that is impressive...” This is certainly the most moving book of Winterson's I have ever read, and it also feels like the most turbulent and the least controlled...

Publishers Weekly“A highly unusual, scrupulously honest, and endearing memoir...” The latter part of the book concerns itself with this quest for love, in which Winterson learns that the problem is not so much being gay as it is in the complex nature of how to love anyone when one has only known perverse love as a child...

Scotsman“Reveals a bleaker beginning, but a happier ending...” Gone is the Nabokovian memoir in which the exquisite past is presented under glass, skewered by a pin. This is the age of instant communication, of forthright, unmediated responses. Winterson has her finger to the wind...