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

I went into my local Waterstones at the weekend intending to buy either Time to Think or Hags. Neither were anywhere to be found. I like to support physical bookshops but I can’t be arsed with this sort of shenanigans.

Interesting. I’m going to show this to the bookstore I visit this afternoon.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10092701/Waterstones-blasted-selectively-censoring-books-feminism.html

From 2021.

This is slightly more positive in Hay on wye:

twitter.com/gappytales/status/1632745865642229760?s=46&t=A2fpFNgDRyXF2d6ye97wEA

twitter.com/K_F_P/status/1623662583499616256

Waterstones just had a drag queen in - the same one who attracted attention before for his demonstration showing children how to twerk.

Waterstones seems to be trending for, as far as i can see, reasons connected to the difficulties in getting a copy of Time to Think and, possibly, their promotion of the St Hell book.

Not on sale in my local Waterstones so resorted to Amazon. It arrived today.

If anyone from Waterstones management is on Mumsnet, take note: you should stock what people WANT to read. Not what your 18 year old Saturday girl thinks everyone should be told to read.

I wonder what happened

twitter.com/hannahsbee/status/1632803196572770304?s=46&t=WHoOZ_3Kv5G6-FyQuvE0LQ

"Great to see Time to Think featuring on Waterstones’s website under ‘Our Best New Non-Fiction’"

'Best New Non-fiction we don't sell'

On the Conclusion chapter now, and wondering how Polly Carmichael must be feeling. So far she has been treated very neutrally by the book, but this does read like a cult of (her) personality. It was very much her empire.

I just can’t get over the lack of audit and data. Late in the book it’s revealed that GIDS did/does actually have its own research team - I’d like to know what the blithering flip they did/do with their time.

www.fixers.org.uk/feel-happy-fix/feel-happy-with-my-gender-fix/meet-the-specialists.php

Can't wait to go into the Victoria Waterstones again tomorrow and ask for the top of their best new non-fiction list. Because for some weird reason I just can't find it on the shelves.

Or maybe it will finally be in stock!

Someone at the bottom of that says

"I picked up my pre-ordered copy today from Waterstone's. None on the shelves as the publisher has sold out. Was told that another print run is being done now."

Still cannot click and collect from any of the three Waterstones I frequently pass and also can't C&C either Material Girls or Hags from any of them either. They say 3-4 week delivery for Hags from the publisher yet Amazon has it next day delivery.

Both Hags and Time to Think are on their best new non-fiction list on the Waterstones website and yet I cannot actually buy either one from them!!!

I would understand if there was such a rush they all sold out but why won't they order in!?

I ordered online from Foyles and they will be getting my money in future

I’ll be very interested to see whether my local library, which has a notably enormous and ever-growing selection of LGBTQ+ books (with the emphasis very much on the TQ+), and relentlessly promotes every rainbow-themed month/day/hour going - however tangential - decides to offer the Barnes book.

No sign of it yet despite many other 'hot new picks' being added fairly soon after publication.

Although you can order Time to Think online from Blackwells, according to their website they only have in-store copies in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and London Holborn.

I bought my copy from the Guardian bookshop, just to rub it in.

@Rubidium and to add insult to injury Time to Think is listed on the Blackwells website as a "Blackwells Bestseller".

"Hags" is listed on Blackwell's "most anticipated Books of 2023", but it is only stocked in-store in Cambridge and Edinburgh. At least it's available to be dispatched next day unlike Waterstones which says 3-4 week lead time.

It's really making me furious. Time to Think was 8th on the Sunday Times Bestseller list last weekend - imagine where it would have been if bookstores like Waterstones and Blackwells were actually stocking them in-store where people could browse and come across them by chance, instead of intentionally searching them out online ("on display" in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard.” etc etc)

I listened to the first 4.5-5 hours of Hannah’s book on Audible today as I had a long journey (hard copy also arrived today 🥳). It was riveting listening and well constructed and paced. The section about the rapid expansion of GIDS, the recruitment of newly qualified staff on the promise of “on the job training” against the reality of full clinical caseloads and no training whatsoever was horrifying. Even more so when set against the increasing complexity and comorbidity in the adolescents referred. It’s just awful. This cohort of children have been utterly failed by institutions with a responsibility to safeguard them.

That's a good idea, I might buy the audio book to listen to during the day and then go back and find references in the book when I need to.

Feel I need to know this one inside out

Zeugma, you can request your library to buy a copy.
My library has copies ordered, not arrived yet.

Foyles has been owned by Waterstones since 2018.

I did the same.

www.newsfromnowhere.co.uk/page.php?pid=index

Can I suggest the above bookshop as an alternative when ordering on-line.
It is a long standing women's collective that has been in operation since the 1970's and is situated in Liverpool. They can order almost any book in print, and most often can get hold of it long before any other supplier. They post all over the world.