A book club - with a difference.

Top of my in tray (actively reading):

Title: Unspeakable - Stories of Survival and Transformation After Trauma.

Authors: Gwen Adshead & Eileen Horne.

(Currently, 10 March 2026, available in: Hardcover / Audiobook / Kindle).

• 'A wise, deep, nuanced and profoundly moving book.' Siri Hustvedt.
• 'Thoughtful, important and a reminder that hope belongs to everyone.' Christie Watson.

The Sunday Times bestselling authors of The Devil You Know return with a life-affirming myth busting exploration of trauma, resilience and healing.

A widow dares not utter her husband's name.

A prisoner of war buries the memories of his ordeal.

A child hostage is rendered mute.

What happens when trauma goes unspoken?

The pioneering psychiatrist and psychotherapist Dr Gwen Adshead invites us to witness her work with patients struggling in the wake of a range of distressing and painful life events.

Drawn from over thirty years of clinical practice, Unspeakable illuminates how language - and silence - can dramatically affect the quality of our recovery after disaster.

Sometimes the hardest words to say out loud are the very ones to set us free and with Adshead's assistance and extraordinary insight, these courageous people step out of the darkness of shame and fear to discover new possibilities.

This is not a book about trauma, it is about survival.

In challenging prevailing misconceptions around trauma and by charting the transformation of patient identities, hearts and minds, Unspeakable makes a powerful case for hope.

This sounds very interesting and potentially one for me. Unprocessed memories of things seen and things cruelly done to me led to my dx of PTSD, well its actually C-PTSD but diagnosis letter didn’t say that. We were just talking a few hours ago about the aftermath of a suicide I saw at Warren Street tube station in the 1970s, thats another one which cannot be unseen to add to recovering me. 

If you have a look at the Kindle sample pages you can see it has a narrative style - bringing to life the thought process of the Author facilitating the therapy sessions - which I found a helpful window onto this type of subject matter.

I opted for the hardcover version as it feels like a reference book I will likely wish to re-visit time and again.

I was concerned about ordering the hardcover via Amazon as (in our area) they have taken to putting things in a thin paper bag, often arrives in a heap of packages in someone's personal car, throw them down on the doorstep and walk away, in all weathers, without ringing the doorbell (delivery status stating, untruthfully, "handed to resident" which is an issue when you remonstrate about a damaged item retrieved from the wet doorstep).

I was really pleased with the delivery by bookcorneruk, via Ebay, as they used Royal Mail Tracked 48 and a super-sturdy brown cardboard narrow-depth box packaging - clearly designed to protect a hardcover book in transit.

If you have a look at the Kindle sample pages you can see it has a narrative style - bringing to life the thought process of the Author facilitating the therapy sessions - which I found a helpful window onto this type of subject matter.

I opted for the hardcover version as it feels like a reference book I will likely wish to re-visit time and again.

I was concerned about ordering the hardcover via Amazon as (in our area) they have taken to putting things in a thin paper bag, often arrives in a heap of packages in someone's personal car, throw them down on the doorstep and walk away, in all weathers, without ringing the doorbell (delivery status stating, untruthfully, "handed to resident" which is an issue when you remonstrate about a damaged item retrieved from the wet doorstep).

I was really pleased with the delivery by bookcorneruk, via Ebay, as they used Royal Mail Tracked 48 and a super-sturdy brown cardboard narrow-depth box packaging - clearly designed to protect a hardcover book in transit.