by Christina Patterson (Author)
New Statesman Books of the Year, 2018
We plan, as the old proverb says, and God laughs. But most of us don't find it all that funny when things go wrong. Most of us want love, a nice home, good work, and happy children. Many of us grew up with parents who made these things look relatively easy and assumed we would get them, too. So what do you do if you don't? What do you do when you feel you've messed it all up and your friends seem to be doing just fine?
For Christina Patterson, it was her job as a journalist that kept her going through the ups and downs of life. And then she lost that, too. Dreaming of revenge and irritated by self-help books, she decided to do the kind of interviews she had never done before. The resulting conversations are surprising, touching and often funny. There's Ken, the first person to be publicly fired from a FTSE-100 board. There's Winston, who fell through a ceiling onto a purple coffin. There's Louise, whose baby was seriously ill, but who still worried about being fat. And through it all, there's Christina, eating far too many crisps as she tries to pick up the pieces of her life.
The Art of Not Falling Apart is a joyous, moving and sometimes shockingly honest celebration of life as an adventure, one where you ditch your expectations, raise a glass and prepare for a rocky ride.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
Edition: Main
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Published: 03 May 2018
ISBN 10: 1786492741
ISBN 13: 9781786492746
How does a person not fall apart when everything that matters to them is taken away? That's the question Patterson poses in this wise, funny book. Part memoir, part psychological enquiry, she uses herself and her wide circle of friends as laboratory specimens to work out what stops people going under... Patterson invests her case histories with such intelligent passion and cracking candour that you feel as if you are listening to your cleverest, funniest and, above all, kindest friend. This is a manual on how to survive in the 21st century. Kathryn Hughes, Mail on Sunday
I thoroughly enjoyed it - a kind of war reporter's dispatches from the barricades of modern life. Robert Harris
A beautifully written and uplifting memoir about love and loss - and finding the resolve to carry on. Matthew Syed, The Times
After losing her opinion column at The Independent, Patterson also mislaid her sense of self. 'I have never found a book called I Feel So Awful I Don't Know What To Do,' she says wryly. Eventually, she put her marvellous empathetic talent to good use, interviewing other people whose world had collapsed. The Art of Not Falling Apart is the result, a surprisingly joyful book by a writer so good that the people who sacked her were clearly morons. Allison Pearson, Sunday Telegraph
Patterson is a passionate, funny woman who refuses simply to struggle on. She believes in living. And throwing parties. And friendship. And sex. And buying a flat in a Tuscan watchtower from the internet on a whim. And also the power of anger. 'I do believe in anger. The kind of anger that gives you the energy to fight back.' Like all good journalists, Patterson leaves her best story until last... the final chapter is a revelation. Jackie Annesley, Sunday Times
If you're 50 and feeling a failure, you must read The Art of Not Falling Apart, by Christina Patterson. Liz Jones, Mail on Sunday
A very different kind of self-help book: witty, wise and wonderfully relatable. Sarah Hughes, the i
In this incredibly inspirational book, she reflects on the lessons she has learned since being made redundant, and highlights ways to deal with personal challenges, that range from domestic abuse and having a severely disabled child, to being publicly sacked at your employer's AGM. This is not a typical 'how to' guide that promises all the answers - readers may find some along the way, but they may also simply enjoy it as a witty and beautifully written memoir. Verena Vogt, Irish News
The Art of Not Falling Apart shames the sleek, smug lessons of the Lean In brigade by celebrating ...the varied circumstances, uncertain fortunes and individual abilities that shape human effort. Terri Apter, Times Literary Supplement
The Art of Not Falling Apart... is moving, poignant and extremely funny, it's filled with wisdom and it's enormously uplifting. I'm going to keep it on my bedside table forever, in case of emergency, and buy a box of copies so that I can distribute them to the people I love when they need a boost. Daisy Buchanan, author of How to Be a Grown Up, The Pool
'What do you do when you feel you've messed it all up and your friends seem to be doing just fine? Ditch the self-help books and keep buggering on' sums up journalist and broadcaster Christina Patterson's attitude in this brilliant, poignant and also very funny memoir about picking yourself up and starting afresh. Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller (non-fiction editor's choice, May)
The whole book was such a gripping read... The honesty is refreshing. It is also beautifully written... Everyone who works in healthcare would benefit from reading this book. Peter Carter, Nursing Times
funny and uplifting , 100 Sizzling Summer Reads, Mail on Sunday
Brave, honest and readable, Wendy Cope, The Week
A page turner! Insightful, sad, funny and so well written. Kirsty Wark
A wonderful, gutsy writer. Clive James
I knew of Christina Patterson as a skilfully probing journalist on The Independent who was great fun to be interviewed by and who shared my love of Larkin. She also wrote the most insightful piece I've ever read about my old boss, Gordon Brown. Her moving and funny book, The Art of Not Falling Apart describes with searing honesty what it's like for a single woman in middle age to lose the one thing that was holding her life together - her job. Alan Johnson, former Home Secretary, New Statesman Books of the Year
A tender, beautiful exploration of how we survive pressure, from a tender, beautiful writer.
-- Johann Hari * author of Lost Connections and Chasing The Scream (both NYT bestsellers) *
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