MORE THAN A WOMAN

I have to be in the right mood for Caitlin Moran. She’s a fantastic writer and in her column for The Times regularly nails The Thing that’s bothering us all the most at the time. But her crazy-bonkers world view can sometimes grate.

However… life has happened to Moran in the last few years and it’s hard to be relentlessly upbeat when the shit hits the fan. When you reach the chapters about personal tragedy and how feelings of powerlessness in the face of it can make us reevaluate our lives, she really hits home.

Aside from the darker moments, Moran explores the difficult stuff of hitting middle age in an honest and uplifting way, redefining women in this age group as utter heroes. There are plenty of laughs as she explores the ridiculously huge to-do list that is our life. And while she explores modern-day feminism. it’s certainly not a rant. In fact it’s quite liberating to discover we’re not the only ones contemplating botox (which she’s had) and finding our entire wardrobe of clothes has turned against us.

As I reached the end I was hit with an inexplicable urge to clean the entire house, weed the garden and patch my favourite jeans. Caitlin Moran has pulled off the impossible, somehow making caring for your world sound appealing, a side effect I was totally not expecting. There’s a lot to like in this handbook for mid-lifers, and I can’t wait to see what she writes post menopause.

Marina Gask

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