Someone's wife : a memoir of sorts / Linda Burgess.

Essays.

Machine generated contents note: 1. We'd Be Called Wags Now In Which Rugby Enters My Life And Never Really Leaves It -- 2. The True Story In Which I Become A Middle Child -- 3. Thank God We Made It In Which Cars Enter My Life -- 4. The Easier Version In Which I Contemplate The Accuracy Of Memory -- 5. The Stalker In Which My Flatmate Gets Unwelcome Attention -- 6. Teachers' College In Which They Try To Teach Me How To Be A Teacher -- 7. Girl One In Which I Meet A Very Troubled Girl -- 8. This Is Your Life In Which We Briefly Learn How It Feels To Be Famous -- 9. Lyon On Living On The Other Side Of The World -- 10. Toby In Which We Have To Confront Our Worst Fear -- 11. St Peter's College In Which I Go Back To Work -- 12. Ten Christmases In Which I Really Do Wonder About Christmas -- 13. I Know Them So Well In Which I Discuss My Longstanding Relationship With The Royals -- 14. Re-Entering In Which My Children Go To University And Then Come Home -- 15. Trees In Which I Go Over The Top About Trees -- 16. Leonard Cohen In Which I'M Captured Forever By Cohen -- 17. After Enid In Which I'M Self-Indulgent About My Idea For A Tv Series -- 18. On Being Gauche How To Be Left-Handed In A Right-Handed World -- 19. Travelling With Lucie In Which We Take Our Eldest Grandchild To Europe.

"A brilliant collection of personal essays from a quietly subversive writer. These pieces read like the freshest of recent novels: clever, restrained and wittily observant. They range across the personal and the observational. There are essays on Linda's lifetime of being an All Black wife (once an AB, always an AB); her love of teaching, education and the young; and a powerful essay on the death of her baby, Toby, striking in its honesty. Linda is interested in family and friendship; shared and sometimes distorted memories. Her personal truths link to universal truths. She explores the era in which she grew up, and her experiences are timeless. She looks at living abroad, at children leaving home, at house-hunting in Wellington, at travelling with a grandchild, at Leonard Cohen concerts as tribal gatherings. Moving but never sentimental, Linda Burgess's essays are an engrossing read"-- Publisher description.