NEW BOOK TAKES US ON A WHOLE NEW APPROACH TO GRIEF
Publishers Quickthorn are delighted to announce the launch of a vital new book on grief: When Words Are Not Enough: Creative Responses to Grief by Jane Harris and Jimmy Edmonds with foreword by Dr Kathryn Mannix (With the End in Mind: How to Live and Die Well and Listen: How to Find the Words for Tender Conversations).
Everyone grieves for someone at some point in their lives. But how do we deal with the silence that often surrounds grief? How do we find ways to express painful feelings when words are not enough?
Launching on 1st December in time for National Grief Awareness Week: 2-7 December 2022, the new book explores creative responses to grief through 13 extraordinary individuals and a deeply personal and beautiful reflection on grief from authors Jane Harris and Jimmy Edmonds who draw on their own experience of loss, and how the death of their son has led to a creative response that is more than word bound.
The book will have a soft launch at the Good Grief Fest on Friday 28th October 6.30pm and at The Stroud Book Festival who will host an event on Saturday 5th November, 15.30 – 16.30 featuring a talk with authors Jane Harris, Jimmy Edmonds and best-selling author Dr Kathryn Mannix, who provides the book’s foreword. Together they will discuss how creativity can shape a future where the deceased still play a part, in addition to a screening of a short film to accompany the book.
Jane and Jimmy’s son Joshua was 22 when he died in the road accident in Vietnam in 2011. In the years that followed they founded The Good Grief Project, a UK based charity to support other bereaved families and to promote their understanding of grief as creative and active process. This book follows their journey. It also tells the story of 13 other bereaved people who have also found a creative response to their grief.
The emphasis on ‘continuing bonds’ and their own way of maintaining a relationship with Josh, is both emotional and practical. Echoed in the other case studies they illustrate how creativity can shape a future where the deceased still play a part even while physically absent and how this is a normal and restorative aspect of the grieving process. Grief can also be a wonderful educator with new discoveries to be had.
Dotted throughout the book you will find boxes with reflections on current theories, and which explain the jargon you may hear used about grief. In the ‘Ten Things we have Learned’ the authors share the most useful things they found on their own bereavement journey. Eleven years on they have discovered how grief, although agonising, is almost by definition a creative process, one of making things anew that would not have existed had their son not died.
Author Jane Harris said: “After two years of covid and so many bereavements we are delighted to share our book dedicated to all who grieve. This is a time to take stock, to reflect and regroup, to understand collective grief, and perhaps open up more sensitive conversations about death, dying and bereavement. We hope anyone who grieves can find support, strength and guidance from the stories in our book.
Jimmy Edmonds says: “In the first two years after Josh died I didn’t want to hear about anyone else’s grief. But by making new photographs about him and my relationship with him, I found that I was better able to accept his death as real. Sharing these images and then discovering how other people were also finding creative ways of expressing their grief was crucial to regaining my own sanity.”
Annalisa Barbieri, The Guardian said: “The word I keep coming back to with this book is beautiful, not a word I would usually associate with grief. But this book is rich in detail and compassion, it is authoritative and kind. Through their immense loss and pain Jane and Jimmy have done an extraordinary thing and redefined grief as love turned inside out. They make grief less scary. I have not read a better book on grief.”
When Words Are Not Enough: Creative Responses to Grief by Jane Harris and Jimmy Edmonds is available now here:
