An extra pair of hands : a story of caring, ageing & everyday acts of love

'Inspiring' GUARDIAN 'Heartbreaking' INDEPENDENT 'I loved it' ADAM KAY'Beautiful' MATT HAIG'Luminous' NICCI GERRARD'Essential reading' MADELEINE BUNTING'A celebration' CHRISTIE WATSON-----A Best Book for Summer 2021 in the Times, Guardian, and The iIndependent Book of the Month-----As our population ages, more and more of us find ourselves caring for parents and loved ones - some 8.8 million people in the UK.

An invisible army of carers holding families together. Here, Kate Mosse tells her personal story of finding herself as a carer in middle age: first, helping her mother look after her beloved father through Parkinson's, then supporting her mother in widowhood, and finally as 'an extra pair of hands' for her 90-year-old mother-in-law. This is a story about the gentle heroism of our carers, about small everyday acts of tenderness, and finding joy in times of crisis.

It's about juggling priorities, mind-numbing repetition, about guilt and powerlessness, about grief, and the solace of nature when we're exhausted or at a loss.

It is also about celebrating older people, about learning to live differently - and think differently about ageing. But most of all, it's a story about love. -----'Lifts the spirits without pulling punches' IAN RANKIN'Irresistible' RACHEL JOYCE'Questions how and why we fetishise independence when the reality of human experience is always interdependence' GUARDIAN, BOOK OF THE DAY'Heartfelt, funny and at times heartbreaking. 10/10' INDEPENDENT