Coming Undone: A Memoir

Description

To everyone else, Terri White appeared to be living the dream, named one of Folio's Top Women in US Media and accruing further awards for the magazines she was editing. In reality, she was rapidly skidding towards a mental health crisis that would land her in a locked psychiatric ward as her past caught up with her. As well as growing up in a household in poverty, Terri endured sexual and physical abuse at the hands of a number of her mother's partners. Her success defied all expectations, but the greater the disparity between her outer achievements and inner demons, the more she struggled to hold everything together. Coming Undone is the story of Terri's unravelling, and her precarious navigation back from a life in pieces.

Terri White is Editor-in-Chief of Empire magazine, having previously edited some of the most read titles in the UK and US, including Time Out New York and Shortlist, where she was named Men's Magazine Editor of the Year. She has also written for the Guardian and the Pool. @Terri_White

A stunning memoir, hard reading in places, but it feels urgent and necessary . . . White writes like a blood-stained angel -- Cathy Rentzenbrink * * The Times * * A breathtaking read . . . her honesty and her eloquence is the thing that makes it such a privilege to read . . . a raw, shocking, beautiful book -- DOLLY ALDERTON * * The High Low * * Coming Undone by Terri White is possibly the most affecting, moving memoir I've ever read. Painful and exquisite, her writing about how childhood trauma shaped her got to me in a very visceral way. It's a remarkable book -- MARIAN KEYES Raw and remarkable * * Guardian, Book of the Year * * Powerful and moving, beautifully written, packed with stunning set-pieces and, I thought, a stinging-but-dazzling, complicated love-hate letter to NYC, and to how our dreams can too often deceive us. I found it bittersweet and raw, and radical as a memoir narrative: not so much a redemption tale as a chronicle of the real fallout of trauma: messy, difficult, intricate, infinite . . . [A] life-changing read -- EMMA JANE UNSWORTH I didn't put it down until finished. White's extraordinary memoir is gripping, unflinchingly honest and written with great wit -- SALI HUGHES Unique, painful, compelling -- AMY LIPTROT Coming Undone is a beautiful, if uncomfortable, read and White writes with an unflinching, scalding frankness * * Irish Times * * Written with power, love and heart, it'll leave you wanting to read so much more by this extraordinary writer and woman * * Stylist * * Raw, brutally honest and beautifully written, in Coming Undone Terri White describes the devastating damage done to her and its lasting impact on her mental health and wellbeing * * Sunday Express * *