Mad Woman - by Bryony Gordon Paperback

Book Synopsis

'Bryony Gordon is a terrific, compassionate writer' Elizabeth Day

In the hotly anticipated follow-up to her SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER*, MAD GIRL, Bryony Gordon shares her experiences of binge eating disorder (the most common eating disorder in the UK), sobriety, perimenopause and OCD.

Ten years on from first writing about her own experiences of mental illness, Bryony still receives messages about the effect it has on people. Now perimenopausal and well into the next stage of her life, parenting an almost-adolescent, just what has that help - and that connection with other unwell people - taught Bryony about herself, and the society we live in? What has she learned, and why have her views on mental health changed so radically? After coming out the other side of the biggest trauma of our living memory - a global pandemic - existing in a state of perma-crisis has now become our new normal.

From burnout and binge eating, to living with fluctuating hormones and the endless battle to stay sober, Bryony begins to question whether she got mental illness wrong in the first place. Is it simply a chemical imbalance, or rather a normal response from your brain telling you that something isn't right? Mad Woman explores the most difficult of all the lessons she's learned over the last decade - that our notion of what makes a happy life is the very thing that's making us so sad.

Bestselling author Bryony Gordon is unafraid to write with her trademark blend of compassion, honesty and humour about her personal challenges and demons, which means her books and journalism have had profound impact on readers. She founded the mental health charity, Mental Health Mates, which has become a vast online community.

'A deeply reassuring essential read' Sunday Independent

'Visceral and honest' Telegraph

'Bryony writes with such entertaining and brazen candour about mental illness...she really helps people tackle their own stuff. Her writing has helped me before and this will be another hit' Matt Haig

'A startlingly candid book' Daily Mail

'Gordon injects lightness into the darkness as she recounts her relapse into OCD and subsequent steps to recovery' Red Magazine

*Bryony Gordon's Mad Woman was a Sunday Times bestseller on 18th Feb 2024.
*Bryony Gordon's Mad Girl was a number one Sunday Times bestseller on 12th June 2016.

From the Back Cover

Binge eating? Fluctuating hormones? Feeling like you're going mad? Join the club.

Ten years on from first writing about her own experiences of mental illness, Bryony Gordon still receives messages about the effect it has on people. Now well into the next stage of her life and facing a new set of challenges alongside OCD and the endless battle to stay sober, in Mad Woman, Bryony explores the most difficult of all the lesson she's learned over the last decade - that our notion of what makes a happy life might be the very thing that's making us so sad.

About the Author

Bryony Gordon writes a column in the Daily Mail and is the host of the podcast The Life of Bryony. She previously wrote for the Telegraph for twenty-three years, becoming one of the paper's best loved writers, and hosted the Mad World podcast. She is the author of the bestselling The Wrong Knickers and Mad Woman, plus the Sunday Times Number One bestsellers You Got This and Mad Girl, which were both nominated for British Book Awards. In 2016 she founded Mental Health Mates, now a global peer support network which encourages people with mental health issues to connect and get out of the house. In 2017 she won the MIND Making A Difference Award for her work in changing the perception of mental health in the media. In 2018 she ran the London Marathon in her underwear. In 2020, she won the Journalists' Charity Award from the Society of Editors for mental health campaigning, and in 2023 she was a recipient of the Royal College of Psychiatrists President's Medal for improving the lives of people with mental illness.

She lives in South London with her husband and daughter.