- Published: 06/02/2020
- ISBN: 9781783782642
- 129x20mm
- 288 pages
Childless Voices
Lorna Gibb
From the playgrounds of Glasgow to the villages of Bangladesh; from religious rites to ancient superstitions; from the world’s richest people to its powerless and enslaved, Lorna Gibb’s masterful Childless Voices paints a global portrait of people without children. Brilliantly grouped by thematic commonality (Those who long, Those who were denied, Those who Choose, etc) the book is a testament to the power of listening, and the power of sharing stories. It is an essential, moving and surprising book on a subject which touches everyone.
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Lorna Gibb's study of childlessness is an enthralling mixture of empathy and enquiry. She starts, movingly, with her own experience, then uses it to explore other women's stories, historically, culturally and politically. She is a thoughtful, informed, and always kind witness and guide to this much under explored issue. A brave and brainy book
Kate Clanchy
Childless Voices is impressive and moving, endowed with a deep authenticity and written with courage and honesty
Paul Komesaroff
Lorna Gibb builds a profound story around absence and the shape it gives lives around the world. Her tales of childless people of all situations are by turns moving, inspiring and shocking but always beautifully and sympathetically written
Susanna Forrest
From the Same Author
A Ghost's Story
Lorna Gibb
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries séances and spiritualist meetings grew in popularity. One ‘ghost’ appeared more than any other: the Katie King spirit.
A Ghost’s Story presents the mysterious spirit writings and biographical outpourings of Katie King, this famous and enigmatic spirit celebrity. Is she a profound and curious consciousness guided into this realm by the faith of true believers, or the cheap trickery of parlour cheats and exploitative swindlers? Katie King is both, and more. This is the tale of a ghost’s quest to understand human faith, loss and passion. It is also the tale of a contemporary scholar desperate to understand the allure of the spirit world, journeying with Katie from the candle-lit drawing rooms of Victorian London to the Imperial Palaces of Tsars; from the shadiest of gimmicks and tricks, to the most poignant sincerity of the death-bed wish.
A Ghost’s Story announces a narrator like no other, moving in and out of time and space, obstreperous, witty and profoundly honest. Above all, it is an examination of belief and a spectacular insight into what lies on the other side.
Lorna Gibb on Granta.com
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
The Mask of Night
Lorna Gibb
‘I puzzled over the language but disentangled its meaning slowly, carefully, eager to connect’ Lorna Gibb on Shakespeare’s Juliet.
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
Best Book of 1981: Lanark
Lorna Gibb
Lorna Gibb on why Alasdair Gray's Lanark is the best book of 1981.
Fiction | The Online Edition
Portia’s Choice
Lorna Gibb
‘There were rules to the game. I could not lose my virginity and I had to be careful not to let a boy go further than I wanted to.’
