"An Extra Pair of Hands is an emotional journey, celebrating family and love and exploring grief and ageing – it’s raw, witty, heartbreaking and honest."
An Extra Pair of Hands is an emotional journey, following Kate Mosse as she became a carer for her father, mother and then mother-in-law in a short space of time. This is a book about what it’s like to be a carer, not as a paid employee but to be there for your family at times of illness, crisis and increasing fragility – because you want to be, not because it’s just part of a job. I felt like I was there in her memories, not only during her practical day-to-day activities and dealing with their essential needs, but also the impact on her own mental health. Carers silently, stoically and heroically do what they do out of love and for little or no reward. It can be hard, both physically and emotionally – always thinking of, and dealing with, loved ones’ needs other than their own. In her book, Kate Mosse also touches on the impact of pandemic and lockdowns and the shielding of older & vulnerable people. An Extra Pair of Hands is a celebration of family and love and an exploration of grief and ageing – it’s raw, witty, heartbreaking and honest.
| Primary Genre | Biographies & Autobiographies |
| Other Genres: |
A deeply moving story of what it means to care for those we love - by bestselling author Kate Mosse, writer of Labyrinth and The City of Tears
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.
An Extra Pair of Hands features in the following genres: Biographies & Autobiographies, Memoirs, Diaries, letters and journals, Society and Social Sciences, Home nursing and caring, Family and health, Popular medicine and health, Nursing and ancillary services, Feminism and feminist theory, Social and cultural history, History: specific events and topics, Biography, Literature and Literary studies, Health & Fitness, Medicine and Nursing, Gender studies: women and girls, Gender studies, gender groups, Social groups, communities and identities, Society and culture: general, History, History and Archaeology
An Extra Pair of Hands is available in Hardback
An Extra Pair of Hands was written by Kate Mosse and published by Wellcome Collection an imprint of Profile Books Ltd
An Extra Pair of Hands has 208 pages
£11.69
