It’s taken me eighteen months, several hundred bottles of red wine, counselling, pills, the support of friends, strangers and a spirited editor at Virgin to try to articulate how it feels to have lost Mark.
It took my daughter thirty seconds, a cup of warm milk and an Oreo to sum it up last night :
I’m back, Columbo-style (minus cigar and seedy mac), to share my book cover with you.
It’s hot off the press at Random House and I wanted to let you see it. When I look at it I feel proud, tearful and slightly wibbly in equal measure.
FYI – it’s Rioja in the cup. Say nowt.
Me After You book cover reveal – a proud and wibbly moment.
Like most writers, I find that I am able to articulate more freely on the page than in conversation – (except after a few beers, after which I am SENSATIONALLY verbose.)
After Mark died, I was unable to write a single meaningful word for over a year. I tried to keep a notebook, but the words which tumbled out into it refused to form into sentences. The novel I was writing at the time is still half finished on a memory stick at the back of my drawer.
This blog was my first attempt after eighteen long months to give shape to my thoughts. And it became like a release valve, blowing plumes of pent-up grief into the ether and receiving love and support in return.
I am proud to announce, therefore, that my memoir Me After You, based on this blog, is to be published by Virgin Books in July. The news was made public this week, and you can read about it here.
Mark was always the biggest advocate of me and my writing (with the exception, inevitably, of Mother). Me After You is a labour of love, dedicated entirely to Him.
Thanks all for reading and commenting over the past ten months. I couldn’t have done it without you.
Wife After Death 