Books

Publication date: 1st September 2012

From the back cover:

Many women have found motherhood to be a creatively rich time, and Musings on Mothering is a glorious testament to that creativity. Here you’ll find poetry and art of various styles, alongside craftwork and prose; all inspired by the timeless theme of mothering. The contributors (mothers, fathers, children, professional and amateur) have captured and distilled the essence of their experiences or reflections on mothering, producing an anthology of great passion. Their work has the power to make the reader laugh, cry, consider, or smile in recognition. Most of all, it gives cause to muse on mothering.
Wherever you are on your parenting path, you will find a lovingly-created “something” on one of these pages that will speak to you. Musings on Mothering is a much-needed exploration into the realm of mothering, and as such, it maps out a multi-faceted picture of motherhood which is as intricate as it is beautiful.

‘A heartfelt and honest collection of art, poetry, and prose from all around the world; its celebration of mothers and motherhood (and fathers!) is moving and deeply human.’
Lois Rowlands, Publications Director for La Leche League GB

‘For anyone at home with a new baby – I can recommend @MothersMilkBks’s Musings on Mothering. Thank you Teika!’
Professor Alice Roberts

Musings on Mothering is a beautiful, inspiring collection of shared thoughts. Wherever you are on your path, there is something within these pages that will speak to you.’
Melissa Corkhill, editor The Green Parent, from a review in the April/May 2013 (issue 52)

Copies of Musings on Mothering (RRP £13.99) may still be available via Amazon.

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Publication date: 6th September 2013

From the back cover:

But they learn to walk away / like any other guest

Love is about letting go. This notion threads its way throughout Angela Topping’s new selection. She writes tenderly and movingly about childhood, growing up, bereavement and parenthood. These are frank, honest and moving poems arranged in an unfolding narrative which reaches out to the reader, wanting to share and engage.

‘The poems of Letting Go engage the reader with their shaped sense of familial experience. In clear and crafted language the poet opens a heart-door on the pluses and minuses of life, revealing the flow of time and love through the generations. A beautifully judged collection.’
Penelope Shuttle, poet and author 

‘Angela Topping’s poems tug at the threads of motherhood and daughterhood, and lay bare the complicated business of family. They speak of what sometimes can’t be said — when words are rags. These are gentle, honest poems that honour the small sorrows and joys of everyday lives. It is impossible to resist the power of such tender declarations of love.’
Martin Figura, poet, teacher and photographer

Copies of Letting Go (RRP £8.99) may still be available from the author, Angela Topping.

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Publication date: 28th May 2014

From the back cover:

Look at all the women! What a waste of time / life would be without them.

Women are everywhere and doing everything – fighting the Nazis, breastfeeding babies, falling in love (or at least tripping over it), feeling embarassed, inventing new passionate positions or, in our myths, flying to the moon or singing sailors to their doom. These poems capture their voices in a variety of forms, sometimes with bite and sometimes with a gleeful grin.

‘Witty, tender and sometimes outraged, Cathy Bryant’s second collection tackles the way women are treated in today’s society. Heroines are singled out; the various stages of womanhood celebrated. Bryant enjoys using rhyme to emphasise a point but is equally at home in free verse. Her work is accessible, unafraid and engaging.’
Angela Topping, poet, literary critic and author

‘Cathy’s poetry does a double-take on the world, with humour and always with compassion.’
Rosie Garland, poet and author

Copies of Look At All The Women (RRP £8.99) may still be available from the author, Cathy Bryant.

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Publication date: 28th May 2014

From the back cover:

This anthology of poetry and prose brings together all the winning and commended pieces of the 2013 Mother’s Milk Books Writing Prize. It features winning writing from: Stephanie Arsoska, Alison Bond McNally, Cathy Bryant, Anna Burbidge, Dawn Clarke, Jordan Clarke, Lanora Clarke, Clare Cooper, Susan Cooper, Jan Dean, Helen Goldsmith, Barbara Higham, Sarah James, Kimberly Jamison, Alison Jones, Sharon Larkin, Helen Lloyd, Rachel McGladdery, Alison Parkes, Julia Prescott, Lindsey Watkins, Abigail Wyatt.

‘It is fantastic to know what a fruitful subject parenthood can be and also to read so many beautiful poems which include breastfeeding and its joys.’
Poetry judge, Angela Topping

‘A fabulous collection; all the pieces sit beautifully together.’
Prose judge, Susan Last

Copies of The Mother’s Milk Books Writing Prize Anthology 2013: PARENTING (RRP £8.99) may still be available via Amazon.

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Publication date: 20th March 2015

From the back cover:

In this beguiling collection of fairy tales for an adult audience there is both the familiar and the unfamiliar. Here you will find modern twists on old favourites such as ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, ‘Pinocchio’ and ‘The Dream of Akinosuke’, as well as reinterpretations of ‘The Mermaid of Zennor’ and Arthurian legend. Original fiction has its place here too, with characters so vivid that they will continue to haunt you long after their stories have been read.

Features new writing by:

Rebecca Burland, Becky Cherriman, Tomas Cynric, Barbara Higham, CM Little, NJ Ramsden, Lisa Shipman, Marija Smits and Lindsey Watkins.

‘Enchanting, fascinating, alchemical – writing that pulls at the threads of well-known stories. But these are not just the familiar tropes, tales of morality, or social commentary: these are symbolic events that are transformed and empowered by writers who have allowed the story to filter through their own experiences. These stories bring the tradition of oral storytelling onto the page – and into the present.’
Alison Lock

Copies of The Forgotten and the Fantastical (RRP £8.99) may still be available to buy via Amazon or from the editor, Teika Bellamy.

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Publication date: 26th April 2015

From the back cover:

In Hearth, prize-winning poets Sarah James and Angela Topping join forces for an exciting sequence of paired poems which echo and interrogate each other, finding shared ground and surprising connections.

Home, memory and commonality are explored through objects that often surround our living spaces, our hearths, our hearts. Opening and closing with collaborative poems, the poets’ two voices come together, part and come together again.

From old fires that ‘spark and flame’ to ‘the heart of a secret’ and ‘silenced tongues’, the sequence picks out the people, places and things that shape our lives. The dialect of everyday jostles alongside the influences of Shakespeare, Ted Hughes’ Crow and Mrs Beeton. There are shared words, music and dancing, but beware also of the sharp sting of pins, ‘shadow wolves’ and falling.

Sarah and Angela’s jointly-written poem ‘Crow Lines’, taken from Hearth, was highly commended in Cheltenham Poetry Festival’s Compound Poem competition. (2015)

‘James’ and Topping’s poetry duet explores ideas of home through memories and objects from childhood. Crows, sewing and laundry lines are recurring images; “The sister I never met hangs out my sheets” (‘The Washing Line’, James) and “small acts of love, pinned up with such hope of drying” (‘Spring Lines’, Topping) with a nod to Larkin and Hughes, amongst others…

…These poems conjure safe, hard-working family childhoods. There is nostalgia but not the syrupy it-was-all-rosy-then nostalgia. It’s the sort that says we are older but we carry memories to pass down; a solid ground from which our families spring upward into a future distance far beyond us…

Hearth is a gentle, accurate, evocative duet…’
Myfanwy Fox, Fox Unkennelled 

Hearth (RRP £5.00) was launched at the 2015 Cheltenham Poetry Festival and was a 2015 Poety Book Society Autumn Pamphlet. Copies of it may still be available from the poets, Sarah James or Angela Topping.

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Publication date: 27th June 2015

From the back cover:

‘Lay low and grow,’ is the motto of the waifs of Duldred Hall. The only way to escape their life of drudgery is to reach the magical height of 5 thighs 10 oggits. But Master Jeopardine is determined to feed them little and keep them small.When the master’s methods grow more sinister the waifs must face their doubts. What is kept in the Bone Room? Why is Rook’s parlour locked? A new waif arrives and the fight for survival begins. But this child brings another mystery: who is Oy?

‘The waifs will grab your heart from page one and not let go. This book entertains on so many levels. Charles Kinglsey meets Jasper Fforde with shades of Gormenghast.’
Fiona Faith Ross, author

Destined to be a classic. Jeopardine’s decline into horrific madness offers readers of all ages the same thrill as Dahl’s Child Catcher.’
Helen Baggott (read-reviewed.com)

Oy Yew was launched at the 2015 Lowdham Book Festival and was longlisted for the Times/Chicken House prize for children’s fiction. It was shortlisted for the International Rubery Book Award in 2016, was a category finalist in the Eric Hoffer Award 2016 and it was a finalist in the 2015 Wishing Shelf Book Awards.

Copies of Oy Yew (RRP £7.99) may still be available to buy via Amazon.

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Publication date: 26th September 2015

From the back cover:

This anthology of poetry and prose brings together all the winning pieces of the 2014 Mother’s Milk Books Writing Prize.

Features writing from: Ann Abineri, Joanne Adams, Stephanie Arsoska, Fran Baillie, Sue Barnard, Lucy Benton, Lynn Blair, Jessica Bradley, Ute Carson, Eleni Cay, Becky Cherriman, Dawn Clarke, Jordan Clarke, Caroline Cole, Helen Cooper, Shanti and Surya Cooper-Ivison, Matilda Furlan-Simmonds, Louise Goulding, Catherine Haines, Lynsey Hansford, Sue Hardy-Dawson, Angi Holden, Sally Jack, Sarah James, Henrietta Job, Karen Little, Isaac Lloyd, Beth McDonough, Starr Meneely, Wendy Orr, Dawn Osabwa, Liz Proctor, Nikki Robson, Julie Russell, Finola Scott, Stephanie Siviter, Angela Smith, Laura Taylor, Becky Tipper, Rose Topping, Luschka Van Onselen, Emma Wootton, Abigail Wyatt.

‘The winning poems have all the energy, warmth, wit and clarity that I’ve come to expect from Mother’s Milk Books.’
Poetry judge Cathy Bryant

‘A beautiful, vibrant collection that captures the bittersweet joy of motherhood. Highly recommended.’
Prose judge Milli Hill

Copies of The Mother’s Milk Books Writing Prize Anthology 2014: THE STORY OF US (RRP £8.99) may still be available via Amazon.

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Publication date: 17th February 2016

From the back cover:

‘Becky Cherriman’s ECHOLOCATION is a stridently assured body of work that negotiates the tethers binding mother and child. Infertility, fostering and single motherhood are encountered and marked by those elements of love that exist within the interstices of domestic spaces and everyday life: the remnant of smells and ghosts within the folds of a blanket, a child as its mother’s ‘first accurate mirror’. The improbability of existence is at the heart of the work; nothing is taken for granted, and motherhood is considered the beginning of an energized attentiveness.
A powerful pamphlet that both enthrals and inspires, ECHOLOCATION is not to be missed.’
Carolyn Jess-Cooke

‘An impressive first pamphlet which does not succumb to mawkish sentimentality, ECHOLOCATION displays some startling and original imagery.’
Michael Brown

Echolocation was launched at the Leeds Big Bookend and was longlisted in the 2016 Saboteur Awards best poetry pamphlet category. Copies may still be available from the poet, Becky Cherriman.

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Publication date: 19th March 2016

From the back cover:

In the second of the series of The Forgotten and the Fantastical, an annual collection of fairy tales for an adult audience, there is the new and the familiar. Mirrors are both evil and empowering. Rumpelstiltskin is encountered in a modern metropolis as well as once upon a time. Fae folk, too, appear in a contemporary as well as ancient setting, and witches, beasts, wicked queens and dark, dark forests are never too far away…

Features new writing from:

Anuradha Gupta, Sarah Hindmarsh, Elizabeth Hopkinson, Laura Kayne, Hannah Malhotra, Deborah Osborne, Julie Pemberton, NJ Ramsden, Ronne Randall, Rachel Rivett, Ana Salote, Finola Scott, Rebecca Ann Smith, Marija Smits, Becky Tipper, Lindsey Watkins, Jane Wright.

‘Each of these stories comes with a stunning new twist on tradition; they are stories full of love, and always a light-in-the-darkness lift. As a lifelong fan of fairy tales and myth, it’s easy to feel you’ve seen/read/heard it all, but I was impressed with this book in a way I couldn’t have predicted. A magnificent collection.’

Kate Garrett

Copies of The Forgotten and the Fantastical 2 (RRP £8.99) may still be available to buy via Amazon or from the editor, Teika Bellamy.

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Publication date: 19th March 2016

From the back cover:

Following the destruction of her beloved valley, Maysun encounters the spirit of the GrandOmma and embarks on a journey to bring the Wingfish – and harmony – back to her homeland. She must face the dangers of the Ruba forest alone, haunted by the memory of her encounter with Barco, the unwitting bringer of danger…

‘A beautifully imagined world with an atmosphere that lingers. A girl of the Watterishi tribe finds true power when she aligns her destiny with the natural and the supernatural.’
Ana Salote

‘With her lyrical prose and talent for invention, Alison Lock conjures a magical world, with its own intriguing myths and vivid details. I was enchanted by Maysun’s story from the very first chapter.’
Zoe Gilbert

Maysun and the Wingfish (RRP £7.99) was launched at the 2016 Cleckheaton Literature Festival and copies may still be available from the author, Alison Lock.

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Publication date: 26th May 2016

From the back cover:

In HANDFAST, Scottish poets Ruth Aylett and Beth McDonough explore the dynamics of dementia and autism within the context of family life. These poems reflect, find parallels and ask what really happens when the generation before or after is affected.

How is the fabric and feasting of day-to-day life changed by these conditions, and what were the early signs, hopes and disappointments? These poems do not shirk from harsh realities, but find shared spaces and connections, and even comfort and the surprise of humour.

In HANDFAST, we learn about the heart (‘this million-shattered glass’), about the power of rain, and that sometimes riddles remain unsolved.

Handfast (RRP £5.00) received many highly positive reviews (such as this one) and sold out.

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Publication date: 25th June 2016

From the back cover:

Alex Mansfield, the doctor leading a groundbreaking project to grow a human foetus in an artificial uterus, has gone on the run and taken the newborn baby with her. While the child’s parents wait anxiously for news, and the world’s media clamour for answers, Alex’s colleagues question her recent behaviour and begin to take action.

Baby X weaves science and medical ethics into an intimate thriller; asking difficult questions without offering easy answers.

‘This is a thriller with a difference… What might simply have been a cold, clinical story about science, medicine and ethics, is actually a tale of families, parenthood, fear and the deepest love, which moves along with pace and intelligence…’
Shreya Sen Handley

‘Baby X is a feminist Brave New World for the twenty-first century. An intelligent, stylish and compelling read.’
Ana Salote

Baby X was awarded an Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award in 2017, recognizing ‘superior work by a debut author’. It won the Commercial Fiction category in the overall Eric Hoffer Prize the same year, and scooped up a Da Vinci Eye Award for its original cover art (by illustrator Emma Howitt). The novel was also shortlisted for the International Rubery Book Award in 2017.

Baby X (RRP £8.99) by Rebecca Ann Smith received many highly positive reviews and sold out.

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Publication date: 20th November 2016

From the back cover:

This anthology of poetry and prose brings together all the winning pieces of the 2015 Mother’s Milk Books Writing Prize.

Features writing from: Ann Abineri, Joanne Adams, Dawn Allen, Lynn Blair, Cathy Bryant, Ute Carson, Lanora Clarke, Caroline Cole, Helen Curtis, Jan Dean, Alex Habeeb, Karen Harvey, Maeve Henry, Angi Holden, Tracey Holland, Charvi Jain, Alison Jones, Karen Little, Carmina Masoliver, Tiffany ‘TJ’ McReynolds, Beth McDonough, Rachel Newman, Dawn Osabwa, Rachel Patel, Liz Proctor, I. Rawlinson, Ruby Lamey Sarkar, Finola Scott, Catherine Smith, Deborah Staunton, Claire Stephenson, Fern Thomas, Nicky Torode, Sheila Wild, Sarah Willis.

‘Reading the competition entries was a delight. There was thought, imagination and feeling –love – in every poem.’
Poetry judge Sarah James

‘…[the authors’] tales are as varied and textured as our individual parenting journeys naturally are.’
Prose judge Zion Lights

Copies of The Mother’s Milk Books Writing Prize Anthology 2015: LOVE (RRP £8.99) may still be available via Amazon.

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Publication date: 18th March 2017

From the back cover:

In this, the third in the series of The Forgotten and the Fantastical, an annual collection of fairy tales for an adult audience, transformation, both physical and psychological, is a recurring theme. Tea is served and stories are told. A stiletto is lost and strange babies are born. And bears, trees and flowers are never quite what they seem…

Features new writing from:

Sarah Armstrong, Carys Crossen, Moira Garland, Marie Gethins, Sarah Hindmarsh, Angi Holden, Elizabeth Hopkinson, Dan Micklethwaite, Poppy O’Neill, Ness Owen, NJ Ramsden, Ronne Randall, Rachel Rivett, Sophie Sellars, Claire Stephenson, Lynden Wade, Clair Wright.

‘Wise women, children, bears, and ravens, these are stories that hear the songs of mermaids and strange sounds in the woods – an utterly enchanting anthology.’
Angela Readman (author of Don’t Try This at Home)

‘Editor, Teika (Tinker?) Bellamy, has loosed a third fantastical selection guaranteed to get the grown-ups clapping.’
Ana Salote (author of Oy Yew)

Copies of The Forgotten and the Fantastical 3 (£8.99) may still be available via Amazon or from the editor, Teika Bellamy.

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Publication date: 12th June 2017

From the back cover:

The sequel to Oy Yew, Nondula is the second book in THE WAIFS OF DULDRED trilogy.

Oy and his friends cannot believe their luck when their escape from Duldred leads them to Nondula, a land of sweet air and gentle people. All seems well till Oy’s dear friend, Linnet, falls seriously ill. With his newly found healing skills Oy works desperately to save her. But when Nondula’s cruel neighbours, the Felluns, come to visit, Oy discovers that a healer is a very dangerous thing to be. Soon both Linnet’s life and the future of Nondula come to rest on his small shoulders.

‘Ana Salote is an extraordinary and original voice. Her stories are suspenseful, strange, compelling and also beautiful.’
Liz Brownlee

‘Oy Yew is a book that deserves to be discovered. Lyrical and magical.’
Candy Gourlay

Nondula (RRP £7.99) by Ana Salote received many highly positive reviews and may still be available via Amazon.

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Publication date: 9th July 2017

From the back cover:

2016. Nights of no sleep, new infant to feed and soothe; a woman reaches for an old box of papers to read. Letters, diary: fragments of a life long gone. The writing of a forgotten relative from the 19th century that she had always meant to do something with. Archive. Study. Yet, she never had the time, until now, when her baby ‘murmurs in blue slate light’. The woman from the past is suddenly in her life, ‘soft as the nook between neck and ear’. Two voices trying to find their way through motherhood and marriage, whilst still clinging to their own identities.

INHERITANCE brings together two poets, Ruth Stacey and Katy Wareham Morris, to create an unforgettable sequence of poems. The poems follow each other with echoes from the past, images that re-surface and bring with them a feeling of universal emotion, irrelevant of the century.

Inheritance (RRP £5.00) was launched at the 2017 Ledbury Poetry Festival and was the winner of Best Collaborative Work at the 2018 Sabotage Awards. Copies may still be available from either Ruth Stacey or Katy Wareham Morris.

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Publication date: 27th February 2018

From the back cover:

‘These are poems which delight in tactile and sensory imagery, precise language and carefully selected detail. Holden is unafraid to face all facets of life, whether it’s undergoing bereavement or fiercely protecting her children. The love for family evident throughout the poems, reaches out to strangers undergoing hardship, and back through generations. Here is warmth and humour, great tenderness. The mastery of craft alone would have made Spools of Thread a worthy winner of the Mother’s Milk Books inaugural Pamphlet Prize, but the subject matter is as moving a testament to the lives of women as I have encountered anywhere.’
Angela Topping

‘I love these poems – clear, beautiful, intimate, affecting; with such an understated surety in the writing. The poems are not showy, but finely crafted and glorying in the ordinary stuff of life, and death. Here are the tender offices of what it is to be a woman; a mother, a daughter – in attendance in hospitals, in kitchens, in memory, “in turned hems, let down as we grew.”’
Deborah Alma, Emergency Poet

Angi Holden’s assured debut, Spools of Thread (RRP £6.00) was the winner of the inaugural Mother’s Milk Books Pamphlet Prize. It met with many highly positive reviews (such as this one) and sold out.

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Publication date: 26th May 2018

From the back cover:

The fourth in the series of The Forgotten and the Fantastical brings you wildness and magic and the archetypes of old. A faraway woman brings peace to the drowned, a wild man is caught in a net, a frozen girl goes in search of snow. And surprising secrets are to be found in a therapist’s office, a care home and a microwave oven…

Features new writing from: Renee Anderson, Ruth Asch, Rosemary Collins, Donna M Day, Lisa Fransson, Victoria Haslam, Susie Hennessy, Elizabeth Hopkinson, Holly James, Katy Jones, Matthew Keeley, Leslie Muzingo, Rachel Rivett, Lynden Wade.

‘This latest offering from The Forgotten and the Fantastical series will delight anyone who enjoys fairy tales. The stories in this collection are by turns mythic and intimate, presenting traditional themes and characters in inventive and often surprising new forms. Mother’s Milk Books is well known for providing a platform to emerging writers, and this collection is packed full of engaging new voices. Highly recommended.’
Rebecca Ann Smith (author of Baby X)

The Forgotten and the Fantastical 4 (RRP £10.00) met with highly positive reviews (such as this one) and sold out.

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Publication date: 29th July 2019

From the back cover:

The sequel to Oy Yew and Nondula, Nigma is the final book in THE WAIFS OF DULDRED trilogy.

Linnet’s medicine is running out. Oy must return to Affland to find the healing fungus to save his friend’s life. With the Felluns in pursuit and the storm wall ahead, the chances of success are slim. As the last leg draws near Oy makes an unexpected and astonishing detour into his own past.

‘Oy, Linnet and friends climb straight into the reader’s heart. Ana Salote is a wonderful storyteller. This series, with its underlying themes of connection and healing, is high on my enjoyable reads list.’
Joy Kenward, author of The Joy of Mindful Writing

Oy Yew is filled with atmosphere, creepiness, tension, kindness and joy. Even as an adult reader I was on the edge of my seat. To my mind this is one of the finest children’s novels ever written.’
Bastian’s Book Reviews

Nigma (RRP £8.99) by Ana Salote received many highly positive reviews and may still be available via Amazon.

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Publication date: 19th October 2019

From the back cover:

The fifth in the series of The Forgotten and the Fantastical brings you wolves and glass and altered reality. A grandmother remembers what it was like to be in the belly of a wolf; a newly wed wife is revolted by her billionaire husband; a mother protects her child from the cunning Folk of the Mound, and women young and old go in search of a better life.

Features new writing from: Becky Cherriman, Noel Chidwick, Carys Crossen, Donna M Day, Rosie Garland, Kim Gravell, Katie Gray, Sarah Hindmarsh, Jonty Levine, Keris McDonald, Angela Readman, Louise M M Richards, Marija Smits, Aliya Whiteley.

‘Mind-blowingly gorgeous – filled with wickedly powerful girls and women, playing games with words and songs and gender roles. It feels like reading a collection of stories that were expurgated from the Grimm collections for being too radical. Utterly loved it.’
Cassandra Parkin (author of New World Fairy Tales)

The Forgotten and the Fantastical 5 (RRP £10.00) was launched at FantasyCon 2019, in Glasgow, and was shortlisted for the International Rubery Book Award 2020. It met with highly positive reviews (such as this one) and copies may still be available via Amazon or from the editor, Teika Bellamy.

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Publication date: 19th October 2019

From the back cover:

How have you changed through learning to love and nurture your children?

Have you even had the time to ask yourself this question?

Mothering, with all its joys and challenges, requires an immense investment of our practical and emotional resources.

Yet it is also a journey which ignites great learning and personal transformation for the women who walk it. With contributions from women at all stages of the mothering journey, it is this inner journey of learning and transformation which Clare Cooper celebrates.

Milestones of Motherhood is a call to value the inherent worth and meaning of mothering work, to recognise the personal transformation mothering ignites, and above all to share the message that work on the mothering path is never time wasted but always love invested. ‘Milestones of Motherhood is a richly woven book, containing the reflections of many mothers about the transformative journey of motherhood. It explores the myriad facets of inner experience which tend to be overlooked and silenced in our culture. Beautiful, nourishing and needed.’
Lucy H. Pearce, author Moods of Motherhood, Burning Woman, Medicine Woman

Copies of Milestones of Motherhood (RRP £13.99) are available from the author, Clare Cooper.