This memoir is a story as well as a study of sustained resilience. You’ll not find slavery, poverty or exile in the author’s background. Her distress was not collective but individual, brought on by circumstances which fostered a sleep disorder and depression. Perhaps therefore harder to survive, and yet so common in our society, although hardly acknowledged.

Parental negligence, institutional abuse, sexism, addiction, a touch of incest, rejection, within the frame of religious, educational, medical, judicial institutions feature in this memoir covering the first sixty years of this eighty year old author’s life.

The Epilogue is a reminder that although adversity can always pounce when least expected, one can retain a sense of accomplishment and regain serenity.