At 31, Matilda Tristram was 17 weeks pregnant and looking forward to having her first baby. Then she discovered she had cancer.
This touching and hilarious graphic memoir — or comic, as Matilda calls it — starts at the moment she was diagnosed, and ends when her course of chemotherapy finished in October 2013. Recording the awkward conversations, the highs and lows of treatment, the mixed blessings of receiving ‘Get Well’ cards, and the reality of still having to queue too long for croissants, Matilda captures her experiences with characteristic style and warmth.
Her beautiful and boisterous son was born without complications and is reliably keeping her up most nights.
“A beautiful account... Apart from how funny Tristram’s comic is, it’s hard to pinpoint what makes it so magnetic... the honesty makes you feel, as a reader, like a companion on her journey.” — Zoe Williams, The Guardian.
Matilda Tristram studied animation at the Royal College of Art, and has worked as a children’s writer, lecturer and filmmaker. She was co-writer on two animated shows for CBeebies with Ragdoll Productions, The Adventures of Abney and Teal and Dipdap, which won a BAFTA.
Proceeds from the ticket sales will be donated
to the registered charity Beating Bowel Cancer.
Interested in learning more about Newham Bookshop and some of the people connected with it? We have four lessons for classroom or family use developed from On the Record’s oral history project centered around Newham Bookshop, Writing and Reading Newham. Click here for full details.
We are proud that Newham Bookshop is LoveReading’s Bookshop of the Month. The article features a Q&A with Vivian Archer, which you can read here.
