In attempt to discover why, Haruki Murakmi talks to the people who lived through the catastrophe, and in so doing lays bare the Japanese psyche.

Rosen hands me a postcard replica of an engraving of a man struggling to carry an elephant up a hill. The very last chapter can probably be safely skipped (eat fibre, stay hydrated, take regular exercise, look after your core etc), but then again the very last couple of paragraphs draw a lot of the rambling together a bit. He also offers tools to help anyone else looking to 'get better', and advocates using writing to make sense of and explore what has happened to you.

I am not who I was,” he tells us in Getting Better, and yet “I am still that person, it’s just that something big happened to change me”. The stunning new memoir from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Many Different Kinds of LoveA Guardian book of 2023 Between the people that Dickens was criticising with A Christmas Carol, namely the people inspired by the philosophy of Malthus that if only you could have fewer people, you wouldn't have any poverty. He has certainly been through a lot in his lifetime and I think recognises that sharing his experiences will undoubtedly help others.

Rosen and I are meeting to discuss Getting Better, his new memoir, in which he describes, often in forensic detail, some of his life’s most fraught experiences, and explains the ways in which he’s made it to 76 years old. It often seems incredible to me that our bodies seem to make life and death decisions for us, without us every knowing about it. In spite of this he has survived and has even learned to find joy in life in the aftermath of tragedy. Combining stunning new prose poems by one of Britain's best loved poets and the moving coronavirus diaries of his nurses, this is a beautiful story about love, life and the NHS that celebrates the power of community and the indomitable spirits of the people who keep us well.Moving and insightful, Getting Better is an essential companion for anyone who has loved and lost, or struggled and survived. Getting better is partially the story of Rosen’s recovery from covid and partially a self-help guide. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this book, my knowledge of Michael Rosen is Going on a Bear Hunt and that he was seriously ill with covid as well as following him on twitter and admiring his political views.

Some of this comes with Rosen’s political viewpoint, which I agree with, but it stops it being general. I’m right at the very edge of what I understand,” he says, but in writing, in sharing, in striving for meaning, he offers readers a lifeline, and shows them they are not going through it alone. I have great admiration for Rosen, but, for my taste, he just errs on the side of pontification, drawing morals, being a tiny bit too clever (a bit cruel, Martin! I had no idea he had lost a son and these parts were absolutely gutwrenching, no parent should have to go through losing a child.

Urzila's accidental beginning in stand-up has led to an incredibly successful career in comedy, with regular gigs on television as well as sell-out shows in comedy festivals across New Zealand and Australia. From Michael Rosen, the highly regarded author of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, comes this wonderful new take on the famous nursery rhyme, brilliantly brought to life by David Melling, the creator of Hugless Douglas. Well, I probably “realised” the moment the first person told me, the only problem is, the next day, I would have forgotten. Exploring the roles that trauma and grief have played in his own life, Michael investigates the road to recovery, asking how we can find it within ourselves to live well again after—or even during—the darkest times of our lives. A Serving of Crime with a Difference - You May Just Discover Something Unique, Different, or Unusual in These 20 Crime Novels.