A Conversation About Happiness: The Story of a Lost Childhood

New
Paperback
2014
$15.02

When Mikey Cuddihy was orphaned at the age of nine, her life exploded. She and her siblings were sent from New York to board at experimental Summerhill School, in Suffolk, and abandoned there. The setting was idyllic, lessons were optional, pupils made the rules. Joan Baez visited and taught Mikey guitar. The late sixties were in full swing, but with total freedom came danger. Mikey navigated this strange world of permissiveness and neglect, forging an identity almost in defiance of it. A Conversation About Happiness is a vivid and intense memoir of coming of age amidst the unravelling social experiment of sixties and seventies Britain.

Synopsis

When Mikey Cuddihy was orphaned at the age of nine, her life exploded. She and her siblings were sent from New York to board at experimental Summerhill School, in Suffolk, and abandoned there. The setting was idyllic, lessons were optional, pupils made the rules. Joan Baez visited and taught Mikey guitar. The late sixties were in full swing, but with total freedom came danger. Mikey navigated this strange world of permissiveness and neglect, forging an identity almost in defiance of it. A Conversation About Happiness is a vivid and intense memoir of coming of age amidst the unravelling social experiment of sixties and seventies Britain.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
Edition: Main
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Published: 03 Apr 2014
ISBN 10: 1782393145
ISBN 13: 9781782393146
Book Overview: Orphaned at the age of nine, Mikey Cuddihy left the US to board at the experimental Summerhill School. Like Hideous Kinky, this memoir describes coming of age in the strange and dangerous world of the unravelling social experiment of the late 1960s.

Media Reviews

Written with a cool-eyed compassion, this is a fascinating examination of the bittersweet experiments of '60s child rearing, of which Cuddihy was both a victim and a beneficiary. I found it deeply moving. -- Esther Freud
[An] evocative memoir * Guardian *
Cuddihy survived her damaged childhood both because of and despite her time at Summerhill. This paradox lies at the centre of her well-written and moving memoir. * Independent *
[A] thoughtful and nuanced account. * Daily Telegraph *
She writes with vivid truthfulness, even-handed and observant... A fascinating document of an age and a mindset. * The Times *
The ironies within this compulsively readable account of Sixties child-rearing are many. The 'happiness' of the title Is clearly debatable, and yet the plight of the orphaned family - victims of thoughtless, selfish adults - is recounted with a commendable lack of emotion. * Daily Mail *
As a chilling portrait of the abuse of children - especially read in the context of all the current outrage - it is an impressive and disturbing work * Literary Review *
Cuddihy's craft is to elicit our sympathy in non-combative style... Cuddihy's triumph is to remain balanced throughout, leaving us to feel the spills. * Times Literary Supplement *

Author Bio

Born in New York, Mikey Cuddihy was educated at Summerhill School in Suffolk. She later studied fine art at Edinburgh College of Art and Chelsea School of Art. An art lecturer at the University of Brighton, Mikey is an acclaimed artist and writer.