One Body

By the time she reached her fifties, Catherine had experienced period pain, childbirth, and early menopause, alongside love and laughter, a career in journalism, and raising two daughters. Like many of her peers, along the way she’d dieted, jogged, sweated, tanned, permed, and plucked-always attempting to conform to prevailing standards of “acceptable womanhood.”But when a medical crisis comes along, she can no longer pummel her body into submission and is forced to take stock. From growing up on a farm where veterinarians were more common than doctors, and where illness was “a nuisance,” she now faces the nuisance of a lifetime.One Body is the demystifying, relatable, often hilarious, and sometimes hair-raising story of how Catherine navigates her treatment and the emotions and reflections it provokes. And how she comes to drop the unattainable standards imposed on her body, and simply appreciate the skin she is in.

Reviews of One Body

'A joyful, angry, beautiful air-punch of a book, and so truthful – I felt as though each word was written on my own body.' — Kirstin Innes 'A vivid framing of the mystery, confusion and even terror tangled up with our young bodies in the '70s.' — Mary Anne Hobbs 'By turns poignant and searingly honest, this book is a wise and witty reflection on all that it means to have a body.' — Claire Askew "I love Catherine Simpson's work … One Body is … the story of what it is like to exist in a woman's body. It's fresh, insightful and moving, and it's a book that every man should read." — Graeme Macrae Burnet 'She explores the idea that functionality is connected to an individual's worth with grace and dark humour.' — Irish Times 'A deep and soulful meditation on what it means to be a woman … powerful insight into … living through the unenlightened attitudes of the Seventies and Eighties.' — Sunday Times 'Funny, bold, wry and, at times, enraging in the best possible way, this exploration … has an incredible energising quality … imbued with spirit and a real passion for life.' — Mary Paulson-Ellis