What an absolutely wonderful memoir. Not only was it interesting to follow the author's life - the way we follow it is also incredibly satisfying in its brilliant structure. I am an absolute sucker for memoirs that mix life writing with theory and a wider cultural history. The author does this incredibly well, breaking up her stories of mental health, work, and gender identity with fascinating information about everything from politics to literature. It is also generally a very intertextual memoir, another favourite type of writing for me; I now have a long list of queer media that I will happily explore.

However, perhaps my favourite aspect of this memoir is how working class it is. It is so easy for people who work in the arts and who write on gender and sexuality to fall into liberal discourse and shy away from anything political that isn't identity based, and to forget completely about their own class privilege. This memoir instead reveals an author who is poor and angry with the government in a way that doesn't sound fake or repetitive; she does not just make exasperated remarks about the Conservatives, but instead offers genuine criticism of parties and politicians. None of this makes her memoir boring, nor does it distract from her personal narrative - instead, it builds on it, and makes for an enjoyable reading experience that feels true and honest.

If you enjoy intertextuality, counterculture, and class conscious writing on gender, I would highly recommend picking this up.