The Hannah Barnes book

[RoyalCorgi]

There have been discussions about the book on different threads relating to various interviews with Barnes or pieces about the book. Thought it would be useful to bring everything on to one thread.

This review by Sarah Ditum is excellent and very moving:

unherd.com/2023/02/the-tragedy-of-becoming-a-woman/

Another good one from Suzanne Moore:

suzannemoore.substack.com/p/a-review-of-time-to-think-the-book

Yes there are various ones out there that provide services to the publishing and bookselling industry like Nielsen BookScan, but you have to subscribe to their service. They provide the data to the Sunday Times bestseller lists and other similar lists.

Yes, that would be fascinating, MadameCholet although I doubt publishers produce that kind of detailed information for reasons of embarrassment commercial confidentiality.

You can get a rough comparison from Amazon, although for digital sales only.

Bergdorf's book is currently ranked "12,184 in Kindle Store" and has 22 customer reviews, with an overall rating of 4.3 out of 5, broken down as:
5* - 63% (14 reviews) - (figures don't total to 22 due to rounding)
4* - 18% ( 4 reviews)
3* - 6% ( 1 review)
2* - 6% ( 1 review)
1* - 6% ( 1 review)

Hannah Barnes' book is ranked "3,310 in Kindle Store" and has 97 customer reviews, with an overall rating of 4.8 out of 5, broken down as:
5* - 88% (85 reviews)
4* - 7%. ( 7 reviews)
3* - 3%. ( 3 reviews)
2* - 0%. ( 0 reviews)
1* - 2%. ( 2 reviews)

(The ranking and star ratings appear below the Product Details section on each book's Amazon page for the Kindle edition. I calculated the number of reviews per star rating myself.)

And yet they apparently had a well resourced research team that worked in GIDS full-time.

I know, @Xiaoxiong ! It wasn’t revealed until the last 1/3 of the book and it was the most jaw-dropping moment for me. They had their own research team, unbefuckinglievable!!

Two copies in my local Waterstones (well, only one left now 😉)

My local independent bookshop? Sorry, we've sold out. Hmm, sold out or "sold out"?

It wasn't in my local independent bookshop, nor Hags by Victoria Smith.

I've listened to it on Audible but would be happy to have a physical copy too - it has so much information and is so well referenced, it would be good to have it to dip in and out of which is hard when listening.

This book is absolutely fascinating. It is so completely fact based and contains such a clear timeline. Absolutely jaw dropping.

God, the discussion on this thread makes me pine for the old Silver Moon bookshop.

I remember it!

Me too. One of those numerous women only places there used to be (with the occasional male to be found).

I remember there being lots of little flyers and cards or posters up for whatever women’s events or meetings were going on.

It blows my mind how much the internet giveth, and taketh away..

I think downstairs was exclusively women only wasn't it?

Article in the Times today "No one kept data on Tavistock children — it’s a monumental scandal":

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/094d3696-c587-11ed-bd5d-fb821bb192f5?shareToken=2f2adddd1de1792ea79c7fd381381185

Thank you for the link. In his words: “A monumental scandal”.

No copies in Chesham Waterstones today. No copies of HAGS either, interestingly.....

Finished the book yesterday - obtained from my local library which has a long waiting list.

Anyone thinking it is transphobic is off their trolley - it's scrupulously fair, features trans people who are happy with the treatment they received and most of the clinicians interviewed aren't even completely against the use of puberty blockers.

The people who come off worst from it are Mermaids and Gendered Intelligence who just come over as utterly malign.

It might have been interesting to know something more about the background of ideology etc - I completely get why the author decided to keep things very focussed but occasionally you do sit back from the book and just think "How could intelligent and well-meaning adults end up in this space?"

Your not the only one to finish it!

Wow.

Though I imagine Erica is being dismissed these days as a turn coat?

That's seismic.

Is Erica still part of WPATH?

It might have been interesting to know something more about the background of ideology etc - I completely get why the author decided to keep things very focussed but occasionally you do sit back from the book and just think "How could intelligent and well-meaning adults end up in this space?"

Trans by Joyce being the reading companion?

Helen must be ready to write part two by now.

Unfortunately I've not been about to read it - post covid brain fog and a new fur baby.

Have no qualms buying on audible too though. Awesome woman

ArabellaScott · 14/03/2023 12:34

Well, Waterstones is a private company. They can choose not to stock any book if they wish, whether it's a bestseller or not.

Yes, quite. Perhaps they shouldn't be selling hate-filled books. Not when they have such peaceful tomes as this, a snip at £25.00:

www.waterstones.com/book/mein-kampf/adolf-hitler/9780712652544#:~:text=Mein%20Kampf%20%2D%20My%20Struggle%20by%20Adolf%20Hitler%2C%20Rudolf%20Hess%20%7C%20Waterstones

She left WPATH and is considered a turncoat/ gatekeeper but she still has a huge outreach in America. I think on a podcast I heard Hannah Barnes say she had not found a US publisher

I think on a podcast I heard Hannah Barnes say she had not found a US publisher

It was on Jesse Singal's Blocked and Reported.

I suppose Time to Think might seem a bit too niche to a US publisher (as it’s about a
single NHS clinic)?
Perhaps Hannah will get a US distribution deal even if no US publisher? IIRC that was the middle ground that Helen Joyce’s Trans ended up with?

Time to Think is available in the US in the Kindle edition.

There was one copy in the New Releases section at Waterstones in Hitchin, Herts, yesterday - next to Monroe Bergdorf's new book. Guess which one had a shelf-edge blurb advertising it though...😡

same in Clifton Waterstones today