Review : Running for My Life - Rachel Cullen

The Very Pink Notebook is thrilled to share the review of 

Running for my Life

By runner and author Rachel Cullen

With thanks to Beth at Blink Publishing for an advance copy of the book

Published by : Blink Publishing

11 January 2018

Copy : Paperback received from publisher

The Blurb

Throughout her life, Rachel Cullen followed a simple yet effective route straight to mental health misery. Suffering from bipolar disorder, and hungry for approval at any price, she settled for flunked relationships, an ill-fitting career, and poor health to match. Whilst mindlessly seeking a utopian vision of 'normality' that she was mis-sold and so desperate to achieve, the solution seemed increasingly illusive.

Stuck in this endless cycle of disappointment with her life, and not knowing how to handle the strain of her mental illness, she put on a pair of old trainers. She'd never been able to think of herself as a 'runner', and the first time she forced herself out the door, she knew it would hurt. Everywhere. She just didn't realise how much it would heal her, too.Interspersed with Rachel's real diary entries, from tortuous teen years to eventually running the London Marathon, Running for my Life will make you laugh, cry and question whether you can really outrun your demons.

The Very Pink Notebook Review

Running for my Life is a rich, colourful and brutally honest account of one women's fight to beat her mental health demons.  Written with candid details and dark humour this book is a journey about a quest to live life in the happiest and healthiest way possible.  Chronicling all the ups and downs, the good, the bad and the downright ugly along the way.

With fantastic ditties remembering fashion disasters from her youth to the very same in winter races, the author, Rachel Cullen, lays bare the realities that subsequently have taken her on a long battle with mental health.  A fight against herself.  We read about what she thinks her life should be, to the realisation; life is never like what you think it is going to be.  Whether in love or careers and that sometimes you just have to accept your imperfections.

What I found interesting with this life journey was Rachel seemingly did everything 'right'.  But, when she thought about it - right for who?  Not herself.  And she had to find the strength to admit she had come to this realisation - which thankfully, she did.

The constant throughout the ever changing life Rachel?  Running.  Of course.  In this, she found her solace, her soul-mate, her companion.  Even when she felt it had all gone wrong (which in several incidences, it had).  Whatever happened with running she always found herself going back for more and in doing so realised she had so many more capabilities and more strength than she ever knew.  And thus, some confidence was born, confidence in herself, in her worth.

And once you have that, life becomes that little bit easier and at some point you feel you can reflect and in this case, a book was born. 

Running for my Life, the journey of Rachel Cullen, receives a well deserved Very Pink Notebook :

 

Review : Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe

Published by : Penguin

Date : 3 April 2014

Copy : Reviewer Purchased

The Blurb

In 1982 Nina Stibbe, a twenty-year-old from Leicester, moved to London to work as a nanny for a very particular family.  It was a perfect match : Nina had no idea how to cook, look after children, or who the weirdos who called round were.  And the family, busy discussing how to swear in German or the merits (or otherwise) of turkey mince, were delighted by her lack of skills.

Love, Nina is the collection of letters she wrote home gloriously describing her 'domestic' life, the unpredictable houseguests and the cat everyone loved to hate.

The Very Pink Notebook Review

Love, Nina - and I honestly do love Nina!  I purchased this book after attending a workshop at the Festival of Writing in which this book was used via audio-book.  I loved the snippets we heard and bought my copy as soon as I could.  When I saw they had adapted it for a TV programme, I knew I must read the book before I set out to watch the show.

   

A collection of letters, written by Nina Stibbe to her sister back in Leicester after she moves to the bright lights of London to become a nanny, are entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable.  The simplicity of the letters are what I loved the most.  The snippets of conversation between her two charges, Mary-Kay and the cast of people who become her world had me laughing out loud on many occasion.  It also gives a good dose of nostalgia for the 1980's in the good old south, when polytechnics were everywhere.

I love the bluntness of the letters to her sister, it's lovely that there is clearly no censorship.  I didn't care that there was no replies back with answers to the questions because that is just not what the book is about, it doesn't need them. 

I was able to dip in and out of this book as I pleased and able to read other novels alongside it.  Each letter was its only little story in itself.  With the wonderfully colourful characters that Nina lived alongside she didn't need to do anything to embellish life as she told it.  It was just, life.  And I am glad she told it.

Love, Nina gets