All Passion Spent Vita Sackville-West Lady Slane is widowed and moves out of the family home, where she had supported her husband's career and raised six children, to recollect her youthful dreams of becoming an artist. She reconnects with a man who had met and loved her in India when she was young. I'm afraid I found this disappointingly dull and turgid.
The Photographer at Sixteen George Szirtes Much more interesting. The poet Gorge Szirtes traces the life of his mother who took her own life at 51. Beautifully written, it looks backwards over her life: exile in England, leaving Hungary in 1956 with her husband and two young sons, internment in concentration camps during the war and early ambitions to be a photographer.
Chernobyl Prayer Svetlana Alexievich My second book by this amazing Soviet author. Like the previous one (The Unwomanly Face of War) she uses personal testimony, this time to tell the stories of people affected by the Chernobyl disaster. I didn't see the TV series, but I understand it drew heavily on the details related in the book. Horrifying and fascinating, it gives a real insight into life in the Soviet Union. Highly recommended.
I also have on my TBR pile Last Witnesses by the same author (just published in English) which explores what it was like to grow up in the Soviet Union during the Second World War.
The Prison Doctor Amanda Brown Interesting if depressing account written by a prison doctor who has worked in youth custody, high security and a women's prison.
It's All in Your Head Suzanne O'Sullivan Thought-provoking and sympathetic account of psychosomatic illnesses written by a consultant neurologist. She makes a compelling case for more understanding of the underlying psychological issues manifesting as unexplained physical diseases. As she points out, we all display physical responses to emotion, for example crying when we are upset.