The elegant art of falling apart

Jessica Jones had a complicated life – booze, cocaine, bad boyfriends, a rollercoaster ride of what self-help writers call 'opportunities for growth' – but she got away from all that.

She rebuilt her career, became prosperous and, at last, found happiness in a wonderful new relationship. Just when things were almost perfect, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

So Jessica did what she’s always done: she got through it.

With the help of doctors, nurses, friends, family and the ever-supportive Nick, she not only got through it, but survived with her trademark good humour and style.

After seven months of gruelling treatments, she travelled from London to Sydney to begin a three-month holiday of a lifetime with the man who had loved her through it all – only to discover that he had been seeing someone else and didn't love her at all.

For Jessica, it was to turn out that surviving love was harder than surviving cancer. The Elegant Art of Falling Apart is a book about learning to ask for and to accept help.

About living in, and enjoying, every moment. About freeing yourself from our culture’s obsession with romantic love, and about how looking good really can help you feel good.

Above all, it is about how, when you are staggering about in the darkness, it will be the power of friendship that saves your sanity.