Dear friends. Today's book spotlight is on a real tour de force. Both heart breaking and inspiring, Bare tells the story of Lorna Tucker, now a successful documentary maker, whose life spiralled into degradation on the streets of London.
It's my turn on the blog tour for Bare by Lorna Tucker.
Publisher's Description
The unusual cover of Bare describes what the book is about (see top pic). It's the first ever book about female homelessness.
My Thoughts
If, like me, you have ever wondered about homeless women, and how they ended up on the streets, this book will be an eye opener.
Lorna Tucker grew up in Watford. She didn't have terrible parents, although she admits there were bad times. She wasn't hopeless at school.
Her mother had had a difficult life - her father died from alcoholism, and Lorna's grandmother received ECT for depression. At four years old her mother was placed in a children's home with her sister.
Lorna's dad had come from a more settled background with two loving parents who stayed together. However he moved out of the family home when Lorna was four, and lived around the corner with her grandmother. Eventually he remarried and saw less of Lorna and her brother. Lorna's mum tried hard but got in with unsuitable men. She had no reference design on how to be a good mother.
Lorna started drinking at 12. "I soon realised being drunk made everything feel better." At 13 drugs entered her life, and that's when everything changed. "I'd never felt such a neat and potent rush of love, energy and freedom than in that moment. Life was all of a sudden full of colour and feeling."
Colour and feeling was what Lorna was missing in her life, along with luxuries that others had like colour TVs and cars. She was restless; she wanted more from life but didn't know how to get it.
She made friends with people who kept her out all night, and she began missing classes.
From here Lorna's life starts to unravel. She becomes the "girlfriend" of an older man, Danny, and gets involved in burglaries. At 14 she finds herself in a police station cell.
She tries to make a go of her life, getting work at a local hairdresser's, but ends up robbing them. She runs away to London, taking what she can find from her kid sister's money jar.
Lorna gives an unflinching account of how her life becomes an endless search for a drugs fix. She develops life threatening conditions through malnutrition.
She also recounts the strong friendships and loyalty that develop among the homeless of London and how they look out for each other.
Cathartic
Lorna Tucker explains that writing the book was cathartic because she was carrying a huge amount of guilt and shame for the way she had lived, and what she put her family through.
The story doesn't finish with a neat little ending about Lorna cleaning up her act and suddenly becoming a success. She eventually returns home and tries to get clean, but feelings of shame occasionally overwhelmed her. It takes a long time.
We learn in the afterword that her life has changed for the better but it took huge courage, persistence and resilience to get to where she is now. "I know that one day death will come, but for now I want to hold it off for as long as I can; all of a sudden I feel like there is not enough time in the world."
Bare is an unforgettable, inspiring and heart breaking book. Everyone should read it.
About the Author
Lorna Tucker is a film director. Her first feature documentary Westwood debuted to great acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2018 Lorna was named by both Harper's Bazaar and Elle as one of the five biggest breakout female filmmakers of the year. She is also a writer and artist, and has written articles for British Vogue and the Guardian.
Thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours and the publisher for the advance copy in return for an honest review.
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