Award winning composer Peter Raeburn’s work has ranged from films such as Sexy Beast to adverts including Guinness Surfer. Peter’s forthcoming album Recovery is based on his personal experiences after having life-saving brain-surgery. If Little Women had been written from the perspective of Marmee March – and Marmee was undergoing a divorce in the 21st-century Northumberland countryside – then it might read a lot like Caro Giles’ Twelve Moons…A reminder of motherhood’s tyrannous altruism, and of how nature’s changing contrasts – the moon, sea and seasons – can re-root us even during the hardest emotional storms.’New Statesman A beautiful, absorbing story of what happens when a family doesn’t fit the mould and how solace can be found in the elements’ Amy Liptrot TWELVE MOONS follows the lunar calendar, each chapter sharing a month and a moon, and shows the simmering power that lies in our often hidden daily lives. A dazzlingly honest memoir that while never turning away from the awkward truths of life, also shows how love will flourish if we can only find a space for ourselves. I was so clueless. Feminism was still a baby. It turned out that ‘having it all’ was just another way of saying ‘doing everything’. Or perhaps ‘doing everything except paying attention to myself’. Had I been naive to think I could have several children as well as a successful career?

I realised that I can be enough; that it is possible to carve out space for me despite huge caring responsibilities. My role as a mother and a carer has informed my creativity, and it feels okay to step outside the box. In fact, stepping outside the box has been the best move I could have made. And, although the city continues to call me, my heart leaping towards every train hurtling south, I can This balance between motherhood and desiring individual freedom is something returned to throughout the text. The question of how can we do or be both is a powerful one. The answer is elusive, but part of it seems to be attached in the solace of the landscape, the wilderness of the Northumberland coast where the writer lives and, of course, the moon. The familiar certainty of its stages helped provide a certainty and reassurance in contrast to the unpredictability of life. It is, figuratively and literally, a light in the dark. Descriptions of the natural world permeate the novel, charting the ebbs and flows of the family’s life across a whole year. They are beautifully drawn and highlight the necessity of place in allowing fullness of life to take place whilst providing restoration for all the protagonists. It is here they can be truly themselves; the book felt just as much a love letter to the natural landscape as it did to her daughters. However, latterly, I found myself increasingly irritated by certain passages of the book. The biggest thing that riled me was Giles' constant references to her ex-husband and the almost pining quality to these sections. I understand that the purpose of the book was for Giles to explore who she was in the wake of her separation. However, I believe it says that by the time the book even began, they had been separated for four years. The fact that there was still this moping, "pity me" tone to her writing made me want to scream and shake her. No woman should be so defined by her relationship with a man that four years later, she still can't bear to think of him. Perhaps this is the point, and that is what Giles is trying to step away from, but every time she brought him up it felt like the antithesis to the feminine strength and independence the book was meant to be cheerleading. Compounding this was the fact that every positive element to the book was immediately followed by some deeply morose emotion or thought that made it quite hard to read at times. It is clear from her writing that Giles is a very anxious and often deeply unhappy person, and whether it was her intention or not, this element of her character held centre stage throughout the narrative.Whilst running her blog, Caro decided to study for a masters in writing. 'I was going to go to Newcastle but, because of my responsibilities and not having childcare, I wasn’t able to complete a course in person so I found a virtual masters course in nature and travel writing, and even though I wouldn’t describe myself as a nature writer, I spoke to the course leader who explained that life writing was a big part of the course – and that’s really what I wanted to explore.’

When I stand and stare up at the moon, I can imagine kindred spirits doing the same, and I feel less alone.’

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The chapters lead us through the year’s moons and their phases, which unites things cleverly - an unexpectedly grounding device. No surprise that I, a nature lover, found joy in the descriptions of the natural world. The healing qualities of the non-human are well shown here. As for the humans in this book, this is an overwhelmingly female and feminine tale. But I hope that many other men will find their way to this book, as I did. The big messages of this book - love, recovery, independence, tenacity - are important for all of us. Newly published by Harper Collins, Caro Giles‘s ‘Twelve Moons’ is a story of how one person — perhaps particularly a mother — holds within their hands the power to change the world, writes Kerri ní Dochartaigh. Haydn Gwynne joins Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles. The actor talks about her latest role in The Great British Bake Off Musical. Since deciding to pursue acting in her mid-twenties, Gwynne has had a varied career on stage and screen, including playing Camilla in The Windsors. Thankfully, her important words did become a book, and what a book it is. I am certain I am not alone when I say this book has reshaped how I view many things: neurodivergence; caring; mothering; the need for alone time as a woman — and much more besides. I hope Giles realises that in writing her own story with such honesty and precision, she has made many of us feel less alone, too; more connected to others spending their busy days and long nights as we are.

Somehow the darkness soothes me, this mother who has birthed four daughters, and must now raise them in a world that has revealed itself to be harsh and relentless. I worry about how I can show them magic and calm, when they have already seen cruel and unfair.’ A gorgeous, touching telling of a year of wild mothering – at the edge of place and time – but written straight from the very heart of its author’ We’re very excited to welcome writer Caro Giles to celebrate the release of her debut book, Twelve Moons: A Year Under A Shared Sky. Twelve Moons follows the lunar calendar, each chapter sharing a month and a moon, and shows the simmering power that lies in our often hidden daily lives. A dazzlingly honest memoir that while never turning away from the awkward truths of life, also shows how love will flourish if we can only find a space for ourselves. I don’t think I’ve ever met a creative woman who wasn’t into the moon. This book is, at its core — a love story between a woman; a creative; a mother — and the moon. It is also a telling of the way life can be shaped by circumstances outside of our control; impacted on by people, events and things we have no way of influencing. More so, though, it is a story of how one person — perhaps particularly a mother — holds, within their busy, tired hands – the power to change the world; to take a dark time and make it shine.The book tells the story of a tumultuous year of challenge and resilience, caring, mothering and recovering, at a point in Giles’ life when her solace came from the changing moon above and the wild Northumberland sea and skies. When I was a child, I didn’t know it would be possible to lose myself. No one told me how fragile that sense of self is. How, like the candles I burn every morning, it can easily be snuffed out. A hypnotic memoir of motherhood…Twelve Moons is an exploration of the annihilation and reclaiming of self that so many readers will recognise and return to. Caro Giles' writing exerts a gravitational pull, and her story of entanglement and enchantment, loneliness and love is a gift for these times’ Rebecca Schiller