Showing results by narrator "Emma Brockes" in All Categories

Despite her mother's tales of a rustic childhood in South Africa and bohemian years in London, Brockes grew up knowing that some crucial pieces of the past were left unspoken. Looking to unearth the truth after her mother Paula's death, Brockes begins a dangerous journey into the land - and the life - her mother fled from years before. She Left Me the Gun: My Mother's Life Before Me is a tale of true transformation, the story of a young woman who reinvented herself so completely that her previous life seemed to simply vanish - and of a daughter who transcends her mother's fears and reclaims an abandoned past.

When British journalist, memoirist, and New York transplant Emma Brockes decides to become pregnant, she quickly realises that, being single, 37 and in the early stages of a same-sex relationship, she's going to have to be untraditional about it. From the moment she decides to stop 'futzing' around, have her eggs counted and 'get cracking'; through multiple trials of IUI, which she is intrigued to learn can be purchased in bulk packages, just like at Costco; to the births of her twins, Brockes is never any less than bluntly honest about her extraordinary journey to motherhood.