Lara Briden author of Hormone Repair Manual

Christie Watson's first novel, Tiny Sunbirds Far Away, won the Costa First Novel Award; her second, Where Women Are Kings, achieved international critical acclaim; and her nursing memoir, The Language of Kindness, was a number one bestseller.

In 2020, during the first peak of the pandemic, she published The Courage to Care and briefly returned to clinical work. During this time Christie was shocked not only by the changing world, but her changing body, as her Perimenopause took hold. My book choice for this episode is her fifth book Quilt on Fire, the funny, honest and liberating account of her midlife journey.

Christie writes about the joy of letting go and the pain of the morning after, of the unstoppable power of female friendship and the struggle to raise teenagers as a single parent.

It lays bare the exhilaration, agony , wonder and fears of being a middle-aged woman with a wild heart, a changing body and a new set of challenges, and as her world takes on a different shape, there’s something else she starts to feel.. the hot flush of possibility....

If you have had, or are having a messy time with your Perimenopause this episode is for you. Not only a brilliant writer, Christie is also very, very funny and very, very honest! Join us for some deep truths and lots of LOL’s as we discuss:-

• Christie’s search for meaning. Who am I? What do I want from life?
• Why the book is called Quilt On Fire, its not what you think!
• The love story that is female friendships.
• How Christie coped with her “catastrophic breakdown” which resulted in her climbing into a supermarket freezer.
• How HRT sent Christie’s libido through the roof.
• Midlife sexual awakening and midlife dating.
• How we are all connected by our vulnerabilities.
• Comparison - the perceived perception that every women has her s**t together and appears to be sailing through Perimenopause.
• Vulnerability- what happens when we share our mess. We are all struggling with something.
• Perfection isn’t something we should be striving for.
• The messy turbulent side of Menopause. Falling apart so we can put ourselves back together.
• The Culture wars of HRT and how women are pitted against each other by the media.
• The cultural and anthropological side of Menopause.
• The funny side of internet dating.
• The chance to Re-evaluate our identity. Who am I? Am I happy with myself? Who do I want to become?
• The Pandemic and Perimenopause, two times of forced reckoning and how they spoke to each other.
• The benefits of collecting older women friends.
• Having a Hollywood!
• Christie finding a much needed sense of gratitude around Perimenopause.

Christie's Book Choices

Douglas Stuart - Young Mungo

Nora Ephron - I Feel Bad About M

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