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Memoir

Books

The Fear Talking: The True Story of a Young Man and Anxiety

Chris Westoby

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I’ve had a severe anxiety disorder for my whole I’ve had a severe anxiety disorder for my whole life. Growing up, I kept my illness secret, even from my parents. Partly through the shame of the things I thought, the things I was afraid of, my hidden behaviours, but also because it was the 00s and nobody seemed to talk about these things – I had no idea what was up with me. That secrecy, confusion, isolation, avoidance, is what The Fear Talking is all about. I know there are others out there who feel as isolated as I did, so I wrote the book I always wish someone had handed me. This is not a book about getting better, or turning my experiences into something positive. Sometimes, a reader needs a sense of camaraderie above self-help. There are enough success stories out there about an author having a mental illness and then either getting better or turning their experiences into something positive. Not everyone does recover, and I want that position to be better represented. The Fear Talking is written in the confused and terrified voice of the sixteen-year-old me who didn’t know what the hell was wrong with him. It’s a book about breaking through that wall, someone learning about anxiety from the very bottom, learning to communicate it. It’s about the damage it causes to others, but also the moments of real connection that come from finally understanding each other. Cover design by Jason Anscomb #barbicanpress #ChrisWestoby #martingoodman #indiepublisher #bookcoverdesign #coverdesign #coverdesigner #cover #bookstagram #bookdesign #bookcover #bookporn #bookjacket #bookstagram #coverart #jacketdesign #printdesign #print #graphicdesign #booklovers #anscomb #jasonanscomb #rawshock #rawshockdesign
It’s 2096. Scientists work to protect a baking p It’s 2096. Scientists work to protect a baking planet. What a drought-stricken Europe needs is rain. What it gets is a messiah. Eli is born in a suburb of Prague. A rainstorm heralds the birth. Perhaps this messiah is for real. Eli’s father abandons the family to become the dictator’s right-hand man. Eli’s elder brother Marek guides Eli through his short and powerful life. Can tales of a messiah be enough to heal a ravaged planet in which few babies are born? If so, Marek works with the zeal of a prophet. Aged 72, he’s still going strong. A new follower joins Marek’s community, young Natalia. She awakens the old man to the joys of the body. But what’s the worth of a human love when the environment is collapsing? Marek sets out to find his answer. My Brother the Messiah is a story about daring to seed the future of our planet. Book jacket by Jason Anscomb #martinvopenka #Barbicanpress #coverdesign #bookdesign #bookjacketdesign #bookcover #bookstagram #design #graphicdesign #type #typography #bookcoverdesign #bookporn #bookjacket #coverart #anscomb #jasonanscomb #rawshock #rawshockdesign
Exiled from America to be free to live with the ma Exiled from America to be free to live with the man he loves, the Irish-American poet James Thornton returns to the same French Pyrenean village every Spring. Over 25 years he has settled at his desk, the flanks of hillsides beyond his window, and captured in verse the life and nature of this mountain community. James’s poetry conjures the lives of villagers. snakes, turtles, fish, birds, flowers, crops, insects, and hogs who make this valley their home. ‘James Thornton speaks as both a poet who has colonised science and a scientist who speaks a poetic tongue.’ – E.O.Wilson, double Pulitzer prizewinner. Book jacket by Jason Anscomb #Barbicanpress #coverdesign #bookdesign #bookjacketdesign #bookcover #bookstagram #design #graphicdesign #type #typography #bookcoverdesign #bookporn #bookjacket #coverart #anscomb #jasonanscomb #rawshock #rawshockdesign
Barbican Press have a brand new website. We would Barbican Press have a brand new website. We would love you to come and take a look! Barbican Press has an “impressive portfolio of beautifully crafted and utterly transgressive fiction” – The Morning Star. Our list holds poetry, drama, writing for children, and compelling nonfiction too, including vivid tales of maritime communities. The publisher is the writer Martin Goodman. He knew what sort of publisher he would like to find for his own work, and so created it for others. The Press was born in Plymouth – hence the name ‘Barbican Press’ for the Barbican in that city, and a sense that a Barbican is a strong and protective space in which writers with a fighting spirit can take shelter. Many of our titles were written as the creative elements of PhDs in Creative Writing. Universities can offer safe harbour for writers, challenging them with regular and expert feedback, giving them years in which their books achieve full voice without the necessity to compromise. Understandably, mainstream publishers tend to seek work that resembles other books that have made money. Breakout originality is harder to place. Those are the books we give a home to. #barbicanpress #bookcoverdesign #coverdesign #bookstagram #bookdesign #bookcover #bookjacket #martingoodman #independantpublisher #indiepublisher #fictionpublishing #non-fictionpublishing #poetrypublishing #booksofinstagram
What is ‘the secret baby room’? If there was j What is ‘the secret baby room’? If there was just one answer, you wouldn’t have a novel. D.D. Johnston‘s psychological thriller starts off with Claire looking out from the window of her new home on a Manchester estate. Up on the 8th floor of a derelict tower block she spots a woman feeding a baby. Surely she does? Page my page she goes in search of her answer, and uncovers layer after layer of the city. And all that the secret baby room can mean. Cover design by Jason Anscomb #d.d.johnston #thesecretbabyroom #barbicanpress #martingoodman #indiepublisher #bookcoverdesign #coverdesign #coverdesigner #cover #bookstagram #bookdesign #bookcover #bookporn #bookjacket #bookstagram #coverart #jacketdesign #printdesign #print #graphicdesign #booklovers #anscomb #jasonanscomb #rawshock #rawshockdesign
Red Hands is a deeply compelling tale of a woman c Red Hands is a deeply compelling tale of a woman caught inside the destruction of a regime. Iordana is a normal girl, brought up with all the perks of Romania’s corrupt communist regime. Then she falls in love and marries the eldest son of her parents’ arch-rival, Romania’s monstrous dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. They become the in-laws from hell, but she brings them their only grandson. And then there’s the 1989 revolution, when crowds will kill anyone with the Ceausescu name. In all the blood and chaos, can Iordana keep her little son alive? Cover design by Jason Anscomb #ceausescu #barbicanpress #colinw.sargent #martingoodman #indiepublisher #bookcoverdesign #coverdesign #coverdesigner #cover #bookstagram #bookdesign #bookcover #bookporn #bookjacket #bookstagram #coverart #jacketdesign #printdesign #print #graphicdesign #booklovers #anscomb #jasonanscomb #rawshock #rawshockdesign
From the mating of sea slugs to the discovery of g From the mating of sea slugs to the discovery of gravity waves, The Feynman Challenge sees James Thornton focus poetry on the realms of science. Poems are sourced with the scientific articles and papers whose narratives and wonders they explore, to help readers whose interest is spiked to travel further. Complete with an introductory essay that examines the interaction of Science, from Lucretius to now. Cover design by Jason Anscomb. #barbicanpress #peterthornton #Feynmanchallenge #Richard Feynman #poetry #poetrybook #martingoodman #indiepublisher #bookcoverdesign #coverdesign #coverdesigner #cover #bookstagram #bookdesign #bookcover #bookjacket #coverart #jacketdesign #printdesign #print #graphicdesign #booklovers #anscomb #jasonanscomb #rawshock #rawshockdesign
What happens when everything you know is thrown in What happens when everything you know is thrown into doubt…and you’re the Pope? A thrilling gender-busting story featuring the first recently elected Irish Pope, Patrick, a gentle humanitarian unaware of the subversive forces in the Vatican plotting against him. Virgin & Child is out April 2nd in ebook and an exquisite limited-run hardback edition. Original cover painting by Timur D’Vatz. Cover Design by Jason Anscomb. #VirginandChild #barbicanpress #martingoodman #indiepublisher #bookcoverdesign #coverdesign #coverdesigner #cover #bookstagram #bookdesign #bookcover #bookporn #bookjacket #bookstagram #coverart #jacketdesign #printdesign #print #graphicdesign #booklovers #anscomb #jasonanscomb #rawshock #rawshockdesign
To a tiny island in Orkney, peopled by a devout co To a tiny island in Orkney, peopled by a devout community of thirty, comes Victor Frankenstein, driven there by a Devil’s bargain: to make a wife for the Creature who is stalking him across Europe. In this darkly-wrought answer to Frankenstein, we hear the untold tale of the monster’s wife through the perspective of the doctor’s housemaid. Oona works below stairs with her best friend May, washing the doctor’s linens and keeping the fires lit at the Big House. An orphan whose only legacy is the illness that killed her mother, Oona knows she is doomed.But she is also thirsty for knowledge, determined to know life fully before it slips away. As tensions heighten between Victor and the islanders, Oona becomes the doctor’s trusted accomplice, aiding in secret experiments and seeing horrors she sometimes wishes to forget. When May disappears, Oona must face up to growing suspicions about the enigmatic employer to whom she has grown close – but the truth is darker than anything she could imagine. Book cover by Jason Anscomb #Katehorsley #barbicanpress #martingoodman #indiepublisher #bookcoverdesign #coverdesign #coverdesigner #cover #bookstagram #bookdesign #bookcover #bookporn #bookjacket #bookstagram #coverart #jacketdesign #printdesign #print #graphicdesign #booklovers #anscomb #jasonanscomb #rawshock #rawshockdesign # Frankenstein
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