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The Stirrings cover art

The Stirrings

By: Catherine Taylor
Narrated by: Catherine Taylor
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Summary

No life exists outside the times.

This is a story about one young woman coming of age, and about the place and time that shaped her: the North of England in the 1970s and 80s.

About the scorching summer of 1976 - the last Catherine Taylor would spend with both her parents in their home in Sheffield.

About the Yorkshire Ripper, the serial killer whose haunting presence in Catherine's childhood was matched only by the aching absence of her own father.

About a country thrown into disarray by the nuclear threat and the Miners' Strike, just as Catherine's adolescent body was invaded by a debilitating illness.

About 1989's 'Second Summer of Love', a time of sexual awakening for Catherine, and the unforeseen consequences that followed it.

About a tragic accident, and how the insidious dangers facing women would became increasingly apparent as Catherine crossed into to adulthood.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Catherine Taylor (P)2023 Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Critic reviews

Captures the fear and euphoria of growing up with precision and wry, spiky flair (Susie Boyt)
Part poignant memoir of time and place. Part record of the violence, and indifference, against which most girls grow up. THE STIRRINGS is a pleasure and a shock (Eimear McBride)
From chlorine and Quavers to the Jesus and Mary Chain, an engaging personal and political 1980s awakening (Richard Beard)

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Great memoir of a Sheffield young woman

I loved this memoir. I am a similar age as the author - who also narrates her book with much feeling- and many of her experiences resonate deeply with me. The fear felt by women of going out alone in the era of the Yorkshire Ripper, the student days when the importance of everything is heightened, the internal emotional damage of a parent leaving. This makes it sound quite bleak but she also recalls funny small details of what she ate, drank, and wore. I loved it and would like to read more of her work.

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Loved it

I really enjoyed this book.
I’m a geordie lass but have lived in Sheffield since 2000 so I know a lot of the places mentioned.
Lots of nostalgia I could relate to.

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