Nightshade Mother: A Disentangling

A striking memoir that travels through a traumatic childhood with an abusive mother.

In this extraordinary memoir, Gwyneth Lewis, the inaugural National Poet of Wales, recounts her toxic upbringing at the hands of her controlling, coercive mother. It is a book that Gwyneth has been preparing to write all her life, in diaries that she’s kept since childhood. In these journals, she interrogates the emotionally abusive mother/daughter relationship, in great pain but with determination to find a way through.

The result is a book that Gwyneth co-writes with her younger self, an unexpected and life-saving dialogue through time. Metaphors of haunting intensity help her confront what happened to her; quotations from art and literature help to guide and steady her. Nightshade Mother is a book about the power of art and language and, ultimately, about homecoming after a lifetime of exile from herself. It is a profoundly moving and beautiful work; questing, forgiving, and loving in its approach.

We dispatch all orders received 3 times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. 

Please order by 12 noon, otherwise, your order may not be dispatched until the next working day (Monday, Wednesday or Friday). Please get in touch if your order is urgent, we will try our best to help you.

Free ‘click and collect’ for customers in Oswestry on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Free economy delivery for UK orders over £50

• Economy Delivery - from £2.49, delivery aim 3-5 working days, usually Royal Mail 48.
• Standard Delivery - from £2.99, delivery aim 1-2 working days, usually Royal Mail 24.
• Express Delivery - from £5.99, delivery aim next working day, usually DPD Local / Parcelforce.

For further details, please scroll down to our 'Postage' page.  Please contact us if you have any questions at all.