A memoir told over 12 moons. A newly single mom and her 4 daughters (including one with specific needs) navigate their small town lifestyle with lots of nature hikes, singing, occasional quarantines, and ocean swimming. Sometimes the use of candles and their mystical power is a bit too much, but this mother's fortitude is incredible. Addington and Ellis argue for a noble cause, but Crewe, an editor at the London Review of Books, does not allow them to be idols. They can be jealous, selfish and lustful, obsessing over intellectual arguments (the works of Walt Whitman and the ancient Greeks feature often) rather than considering how their choices will affect their loved ones. This complexity of character makes The New Life an adroit novel of ethics. “Her face injured him with its familiarity,” Crewe writes of Catherine, Addington’s wife. “‘I did not marry for this,’ she said.” We’re very excited to welcome writer Caro Giles to celebrate the release of her debut book, Twelve Moons: A Year Under A Shared Sky.

Caro Giles: new books reviewed in short From Tom Crewe to Caro Giles: new books reviewed in short

When I stand and stare up at the moon, I can imagine kindred spirits doing the same, and I feel less alone.’ Navigating single parenthood, advocating from her girls and herself - an endless battle to be heard - is isolating and exhausting. Yet we see, she is gravity to the four girls in orbit around her, her own anxiety waxing and waning over the months, as the landscape around them and the turn of the seasons become her refuge. TWELVE MOONS follows a year spent caught between the wild sea and the changing moon of the wide Northumberland skies.This balance between motherhood and desiring individual freedom is something returned to throughout the text. The question of how can we do or be both is a powerful one. The answer is elusive, but part of it seems to be attached in the solace of the landscape, the wilderness of the Northumberland coast where the writer lives and, of course, the moon. The familiar certainty of its stages helped provide a certainty and reassurance in contrast to the unpredictability of life. It is, figuratively and literally, a light in the dark. Descriptions of the natural world permeate the novel, charting the ebbs and flows of the family’s life across a whole year. They are beautifully drawn and highlight the necessity of place in allowing fullness of life to take place whilst providing restoration for all the protagonists. It is here they can be truly themselves; the book felt just as much a love letter to the natural landscape as it did to her daughters. This is a beautifully written memoir, following a woman's timeline through the moon cycles as she come to terms with her family's changing dynamic, how the she copes with varying aspects of her children's needs, her own needs and re-discovering herself and her freedom. Adam Henson is a farmer and presenter. He runs Cotswold Farm Park in Gloucestershire, which pioneers rare breed conservation and was opened by his father Joe in 1971. Television credits include Countryfile, Lambing Live, Coast and Inside Out. His latest book ‘Two For Joy’ looks at countryside superstitions and folklore. Purchasing a book may earn the NS a commission from Bookshop.org, who support independent bookshops Haydn Gwynne joins Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles. The actor talks about her latest role in The Great British Bake Off Musical. Since deciding to pursue acting in her mid-twenties, Gwynne has had a varied career on stage and screen, including playing Camilla in The Windsors.

BBC Radio 4 - Saturday Live, Haydn Gwynne BBC Radio 4 - Saturday Live, Haydn Gwynne

Lavi pa fasil. Life is hard.” A stone’s throw from hotels and a paradise of beaches, fifteen-year-old Noemi lives in the slums of Mauritius, where ends are met by whatever means necessary. This includes working alongside her mother as a maid at the wealthy De Grandbourg house nearby, where an encounter with a boy changes the course of her life. Set over the course of a year and charting her life as a single parent raising her four daughters, Twelve Moons is a stunning debut novel. Caro Giles lives in rural Northumberland. Her memoir Twelve Moons reflects on the joys and difficulties of immersing herself in the environment that now surrounds her. We hope you will join us, and Caro, Thur sday 19 th January here at FORUM Books, The Chapel, Corbridge. Newly published by Harper Collins, Caro Giles‘s ‘Twelve Moons’ is a story of how one person — perhaps particularly a mother — holds within their hands the power to change the world, writes Kerri ní Dochartaigh.In these hours when the world is sleeping, I feel invincible. I am a mother of course, but I am also the promise of my own future, of who I can become. As I sit and watch the shadows cast from the candles, I see myself dancing, skirt spinning, hair caught in the wind, and I know that a better version of me is emerging .’

Twelve Moons: The most beautiful and inspiring memoir you’ll Twelve Moons: The most beautiful and inspiring memoir you’ll

Caro Giles lives on the far edge of the country, with her tribe of daughters: The Mermaid, The Whirlwind, The Caulbearer and The Littlest One. She is at once alone and yet surrounded. Bound by circumstance, financial constraints, illness and the challenges of single motherhood, she has nowhere to go but the fierce landscape that surrounds her. The cycle of the same routines we all go through, even when big things change, we still carry on doing the same daily things with the same people. Here's a coincidence: On the day that a copy of the new Robert Macfarlane book arrived at the office, I...Thankfully, her important words did become a book, and what a book it is. I am certain I am not alone when I say this book has reshaped how I view many things: neurodivergence; caring; mothering; the need for alone time as a woman — and much more besides. I hope Giles realises that in writing her own story with such honesty and precision, she has made many of us feel less alone, too; more connected to others spending their busy days and long nights as we are. This is a debut memoir that will particularly resonate with anyone who has had their life smashed apart and needed to dig deep, just to keep going. In Caro Giles’s case that’s the reality of divorce and the everyday needs of her tribe of four daughters. Given that she is writing so close to the traumas and challenges, there is a rawness in Twelve Moons that makes for challenging reading at times. But you will soon see that love and tenderness permeate every aspect of the lives we read about. Written with intelligence - a blend of lightness, elegance, and even the elegiac, Twelve Moons immerses you in the Northumbrian landscape, with excursions to other quiet places. This is not the life Caro Giles envisaged - an important thread of the read is to see how she adapts to dramatically changed circumstances simply to make things work… to get through the days.