Cassava stew, prawn curry, octopus salad — Mauritian recipes and the rhymes of Noemi’s childhood season this short breath of a narrative. All I know is that you will come away hungry to read more of her accounts of her life; the way she weaves magic from what might otherwise feel a heavy, lonely time. To hold our children close, as the worlds both outside and inside feel increasingly threatening; confusing; overwhelming? Award winning composer Peter Raeburn’s work has ranged from films such as Sexy Beast to adverts including Guinness Surfer. Twelve Moons is one of those stories – a book about finding yourself, your voice and a sense that even in the dark of the night, we are never truly alone.

Twelve Moons: Finding strength on the edge of nowhere

This is a beautifully written memoir, following a woman's timeline through the moon cycles as she come to terms with her family's changing dynamic, how the she copes with varying aspects of her children's needs, her own needs and re-discovering herself and her freedom. The presentation of the book is absolutely stunning, both the cover artwork and title are beautiful. It’s 1894 and John Addington and Henry Ellis (both based on real people) are collaborating on Sexual Inversion, a book that celebrates homosexuality as a natural phenomenon.Her daughters are her main protagonists, but the writing itself, done in stolen candlelit hours over the course of a year, also becomes an act of self-care that enables Giles to nurture her children’s sense of self without losing her own. Five stars are not enough for this amazingly powerful book: how mental health of children, the author's own health following recent divorce unravels their lives inn the time of covid. The result is a reminder of motherhood’s tyrannous altruism, both selfless and dictatorial, and of how nature’s changing constants – the moon, sea and seasons – can re-root us even during the hardest emotional storms.

Twelve Moons: A year under a shared sky – HarperCollins

Set against windswept beaches and ancient hills of Northumberland, this is a story steeped in nature and landscape. A newly single mom and her 4 daughters (including one with specific needs) navigate their small town lifestyle with lots of nature hikes, singing, occasional quarantines, and ocean swimming.

Giles shows herself, her daughters and us that there is “a bigger sky than the one viewed through a window frame”. Thankfully, Farnham’s work to change this through early training is starting to ease this inequality. In fact, the calm and chaos of their lives mirror the ebb and flow of the tides and the lunar cycle beautifully. They can be jealous, selfish and lustful, obsessing over intellectual arguments (the works of Walt Whitman and the ancient Greeks feature often) rather than considering how their choices will affect their loved ones.

Twelve Moons: A Year Under a Shared Sky (Audio Download Twelve Moons: A Year Under a Shared Sky (Audio Download

I hope Giles realises that in writing her own story with such honesty and precision, she has made many of us feel less alone, too; more connected to others spending their busy days and long nights as we are. This line initially made me feel all the anger I had experienced with education systems but also a sense of it being a uniquely female burden of blame. A stone’s throw from hotels and a paradise of beaches, fifteen-year-old Noemi lives in the slums of Mauritius, where ends are met by whatever means necessary. She offers insights into music-making and from these emerge a theme of harmony: how a group of expert individuals work together to create something brilliant. Few readers, he suggests, are really interested in the latest fiction: “Another novel, however good, is just another novel.

I told her that reading memoirs like this make me feel less alone, in sisterhood with others who tread the wild pathways too. empathy for the author's struggles, understanding as a fellow mother of four , a shared love of wild places; her descriptions are utterly magical.