The World I Fell Into: What Breaking My Neck Taught Me About Life

by Melanie Reid

Overview

A BESTSELLER IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

“Perceptive—and lacerating—about the pressures felt by disabled people to be cured … A plea to those with well-functioning bodies to be aware of what they have.”—Sunday Times

Melanie Reid was fifty-two years old when she fell from her horse, broke her neck, and was paralyzed from the chest down. In an instant, her life changed forever.

In The World I Fell Into, Melanie describes how she spent nearly one year in the hospital, working toward gaining as much movement in her body as possible, and learning to navigate her way through a world that had previously been invisible to her.

As a journalist, she had always turned to words. As a quadriplegic person, her mind was still working: she could speak, record her voice, and use a laptop with one finger. Writing would be her lifeline.

Melanie writes about disability, recovery, trauma, and relationships with both a generous spirit, frank honesty, and an irreverent sense of humor. Above all, she offers an authentic message of hope: The World I Fell Into reminds us to practice gratitude for what we have, right now, for the world can change in a moment’s notice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771647656
Publisher:	Greystone Books
Publication date:	09/07/2021
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Melanie Reid is an award-winning British journalist and a Member of the Order of the British Empire. She writes the weekly Spinal Column for the Times Saturday Magazine (UK) about her life as a disabled person. Melanie lives in Stirlingshire, Scotland.

Table of Contents

Prologue v

1 Farewell Happy Fields 1

2 Put Your Finger in the Crow's Nest 11

3 Swallow Diving from the Seventh Floor 41

4 The Angels of Mons 79

5 Pollyanna Syndrome 105

6 This Way Madness Lies 136

7 Aunt Averil and the Hidden Army 159

8 Home 172

9 A Lost Body 212

10 Just Like a Woman 243

11 Of String Girths and Running Martingales 265

12 When Melly Met Nelly 287

13 In Bed with a Walrus 306

14 Am I Human or Am I Dancer? 324

13 A Pocketful of Diamonds 352

Epilogue 368

Acknowledgements 374

Editorial Reviews

Reid reveals with insight, candour and courage what it’s like to find yourself suddenly inhabiting a world that was previously unknown to you … a powerful, life-affirming memoir.”
—Guardian

“Reading this will change you.”
—Andrew Marr, journalist and author of A History of the World

“Searingly honest and frank … A very personal tale that makes you laugh and cry … captivating.”
—Telegraph

“A generous, life-changing book … some of the most insightful writing on what it means to be human that I have ever read.”—Clover Stroud, author of The Wild Other

“Perceptive—and lacerating—about the pressures felt by disabled people to be cured … Above all, the book is a plea to those still living with well-functioning bodies to be aware of what they have. To love themselves and relish their ability to dance, run, go to the lavatory without help. With serious disability can come wisdom and perspective, and Reid passionately urges fellow women to set aside their self-loathing and ‘get out there and live.’”
—Sunday Times

“This is an astonishing and riveting book … It is horrifying, certainly, frightening in as much as it shows how we are all skating, as it were, on the thinnest of ice which may break at any moment, plunging us into the darkest and coldest of deep waters; but also encouraging because it is a testimony to the resilience of the human spirit—as well as to the care and expertise of our health service.”
—Alan Massie, Scotsman

“A vital, profound story shot through with insight and revelations. Melanie Reid has written the most important book of 2019.”
—Susanna Forrest, author of If Wishes Were Horses

“It’s beautiful—full of love and light—and an exploration into not only how, but why we survive, despite everything.”
—Christie Watson, author of The Language of Kindness

“Reid’s writing is excellent, beautifully paced and sometimes shockingly truthful. And my God, this woman is brave, not only for revealing all the gory details, but for questioning those tiresome platitudes about positivity. … Not a breath of fresh air, more of a hurricane.”
—Kate Saunders, Times (UK)

From the Publisher