By Ian Clayton
'An spectacular paintings' - Joanne Harris. each parent's worst nightmare grew to become a fact for Ian Clayton. On a quick vacation holiday in Hay-on-Wye, he took his nine-year-old twins canoeing, and in a freak twist of fate his daughter Billie used to be drowned. In a remarkably frank and vibrant method, Clayton describes what occurred on that spring day, his determined makes an attempt to save lots of his young ones, after which what it felt like years later to return nose to nose with the lads who employed out the canoe. yet "Our Billie" isn't a narrative of bitterness and recrimination. as a substitute it is the tale of the way a kinfolk makes an attempt to return to phrases with whatever which is not sensible in any respect. via his thoughts of Billie and his splendidly affectionate portrait of the small city in Yorkshire the place the family members has lived for generations, he weaves a narrative of loss and remembering, of gratitude and forgiveness.
Read Online or Download Our Billie: Learning to Live with Every Family's Worst Nightmare PDF
Best memoirs books
The Noise of Infinite Longing: A Memoir of a Family--and an Island
A superbly written memoir a couple of Puerto Rican family members, whose siblings reunite for the 1st time upon their mother's demise, after having scattered to varied locations and numerous lives when they reached early maturity. it's also a common tale approximately kin connections and what occurs to them as we develop up.
Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life
Drawing on in particular accumulated oral heritage, this biography totally portrays the individual, the paintings, and the educating of 1 of the most crucial figures in smooth Christianity. Pastor, apologist, and political activist Francis Schaeffer had a impressive impression on either the highbrow and the standard laborer, the scientist and the artist, the doubting Christian and the skeptical non-believer.
Before Fidel: the Cuba I remember
Sooner than Fidel Castro seized strength, Cuba was once an ebullient and chaotic society in an enduring kingdom of turmoil, combining a raucous tropical nature with the evils of arbitrary and corrupt executive. but this attention-grabbing interval in Cuban background has been mostly forgotten or misrepresented, although it set the level for Castro's dramatic takeover in 1959.
Ellie loves her fatherland, task, and ally Jake. yet Jake is a girls guy that might by no means calm down. Ellie cannot stand to determine him with different ladies anymore, so she is packing up and leaving Cedar Grove and every little thing she likes to commence over. an evening of unforeseen ardour makes her begin to imagine might be issues can determine among them, till she occurs upon a mystery Jake has been holding for greater than a yr.
- Old Man on a Bicycle: A Ride Across America and How to Realize a More Enjoyable Old Age
- Our Lives Our Words: Telling Aravani Lifestories
- The Translators Revived: A Biographical Memoir of the Authors of the English Version of the Holy Bible
- How I Wrote My First Book: The Story Behind the Story
- When the dust come in between: Aboriginal viewpoints in the East Kimberley prior to 1982
Extra info for Our Billie: Learning to Live with Every Family's Worst Nightmare
Example text
At the tourist-information office I ask the lady behind the counter about canoeing trips for families. She points to a whole rack of brochures. I pick the first that my hand falls on. It says, Hay Canoes, and shows a picture of families having fun on the river. Billie is looking at a picture book about Owain Glyndŵr, Heather is collecting leaflets about local walks and Edward is pestering to have a go on the canoes. ’ Outside the office I discuss with Heather what we ought to do next. She says that if I want to take the kids on an adventure she’ll continue to browse the bookshops and we’ll all meet up later for tea.
And in that lies a conflict. Within minutes of the lady doctor telling me in Hereford Hospital that Billie was clinically dead she became no longer just our Billie. This book gets its title from something Edward said to me on the journey back from Hereford to Yorkshire. He thought we ought to bring Billie’s body back in the car with us. I told him that the authorities wouldn’t allow us to do that. I tried to explain to him that the hospital and the police were interested in Billie. ’ Our Billie became the subject of a post-mortem.
Whether this be right or wrong, that’s what I do. It’s the end of King Lear, when everything comes cascading down and the old king dies of a broken heart. The weight of this sad time we must obey, Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. When my daughter Billie was drowned at the age of nine on a canoeing trip on the river Wye, I didn’t cry at first. I didn’t cry for three weeks. I was hysterical and crazy with the emotions flowing through me when I phoned friends in the hours and days after, but I don’t think there were tears.