Will You Read This, Please?: Unabridged edition
‘Moving and vital’ i NEWS
‘A beautiful book’ EVENING STANDARD
‘A labour of love… deserves to be read by as wide an audience as possible’ DAILY MIRROR
How do we give a voice to those who so often remain unheard? Will You Read This, Please? is a frank and impactful collection of twelve stories as told to our best British writers, based on the lived experience of people who have faced mental illness in the UK.
Edited by Joanna Cannon, the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, Three Things About Elsie and A Tidy Ending, the stories told here are powerful, resonant and heart-breaking. This is a ground-breaking and unforgettable collection, shining a light on the stigma and isolation of living with mental illness, while also showing the strength and resilience of the human spirit.
SARAH’S STORY JOANNA CANNON
JEREMY’S STORY TRACY CHEVALIER
JEN’S STORY CATHERINE CHO
MARIE’S STORY BENJAMIN JOHNCOCK
FRANKI’S STORY REBECCA PERT
NICOLA’S STORY JENN ASHWORTH
CAT’S STORY SHELLEY HARRIS
PHOENIX’S STORY HAFSA ZAYYAN
LEWIS’S STORY RHIK SAMADDER
SANMEET’S STORY SELALI FIAMANYA
ALAIN’S STORY KATHRYN MANNIX
JOYIA’S STORY CLARE MACKINTOSH
”'Moving and vital” - i NEWS
”'A beautiful book” - EVENING STANDARD
”'Cannon’s varied selection vividly portrays how our minds can become locked-in worlds of anguish, terror and distress […] We learn how hard, and how long, the road to recovery can be” - TLS
”'Cannon’s book is a labour of love and deserves to be read by as wide an audience as possible” - DAILY MIRROR
”'Powerful and important. I recommend it to everyone” - ALICE HOPKINS, BBC RADIO OXFORD
”'I’ve been recommending it to everyone” - RAY D’ARCY
”'Amazing and powerful… I hope this book will inspire more people with lived experience of mental distress to write their own stories; and inspire professionals to listen better” - DR GWEN ADSHEAD
READER REVIEWS ARE IN -
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Enlightening and heartbreaking’ -
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Powerful and insightful’ -
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘A bold idea, sensitively executed… [this is] an important book that I hope can play a part in shifting assumptions and, hopefully, encouraging empathy’ -
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Heartbreaking, horrific and eye-opening… Please read this book, it may help you to understand a little about one other person you know’ -
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘I am in awe of the open and honest accounts given by the people in this book… Thank you’ -
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Heart-breaking and hopeful, written with such kindness and beauty. A must read for anyone wanting to better understand mental illness’ -