Quilt on Fire: Friendship, Dating, Sex and Love

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This is a book about the trials and tribulations of being a woman in midlife, focusing particularly on the perimenopause phase. It is written from the personal experience of the author and is punctuated with numerous anecdotal stories. Despite the engaging writing style, I found this book a bit of a hard slog. Possibly because it was so far away from my experience of the menopause that it seemed like a fairy tale, something I couldn’t relate to at all. Acceptance – a soft word but hard fought for. It’s the ultimate goal – the path to contentment and to being happy in your own skin.

The first couple of chapters I found to be honest, grey, fearful and a little depressing. There was much discussion about how women change, how nobody talks it, and how nobody told the author about it. Or at least she wasn’t listening if they did. Personally I had never heard of the perimenopause but it seems to be an extended version of the menopause. Having read this book I now know quite a lot about it and the symptoms which accompany it. The jaunty writing style makes this book easy to read and it is very frank and candid. I first heard about Christie Watson from a nurse friend, who pressed me to read her books; somehow I never got round to it and life moved on. When I heard about this one, about midlife (the very stage I’m at!) and peri menopause, I treated myself. Although slightly older than the author, I was pretty sure that there would be stuff I could relate to.It gave me a huge dollop of much-needed perspective: my out-of-proportion worries seemed smaller than they had before. It gave me gratitude. You write well about middle age’s pitfalls and the feel-bad power, for most of us, of social media. For some women, the menopause is no more than passing turbulence on a long-distance flight. For others it is a major challenge. What is most positive about this transition? Whilst the beginning isn’t particularly happy or uplifting, it is informative and insightful about the impact hormones and midlife can have on women. It sets the stage. As the story develops and the author opens up, with the help of her therapist, we see a much more content and accepting person.

What these two women have come together to create in Made TV is a streaming network to gather creators and lift them up to share their creations, crafts, and work with a wider audience. Am I a terrible mother? Is the world ending? Did I turn the oven off? Did I pay the parking fine? Is my TV licence up to date? Will I go to prison? Who will take care of the children?

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Unsettling and life-affirming, funny and sad, unflinchingly honest and incredibly moving, this is a bloody marvellous book, fired with the realisation that love is the only thing that matters, in the end John Sutherland, author of BLUE Hilarious, heartfelt and deeply moving, Christie has written a manifesto for all those of us who need to rediscover a life worth loving. A must-read Kate Bowler, author of EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON

A laugh-out-loud, haunting and beautifully crafted manual' Dreda Say Mitchell, author of Say Her Name Christie Watson is deliciously funny and candid about life as a perimenopausal woman in all its (sweaty) glory. A book to gift sisters, mothers and friends i, *Christmas Gift Guide 2022* I would have liked more information on being a nurse - mentioned numerous times - but only in the second half did the author delve a bit deeper into one of her professions, especially during Covid. This was fascinating. An honest conversation about Christie Watson's journey through midlife and how to navigate new challenges of a changing body. You write movingly about working through the pandemic on an intensive care ward. What do you most remember about that time?

Grab a Cup of Tea and Listen in to the Quilter on Fire Podcast

A funny, frank and informative blend of personal writing, research and conversations with friends... [Watson's] descriptions of her failing body are vivid and unflinching... Passages are moving, humbling and written with beautiful detail Marianne Power, The Times A rallying cry for all those confused by their forties, Watson captures midlife with typical fearlessness, humour and style. Her writer's eye never looks away from the truth but seeks only to illuminate it. Every woman should read this book Sarah Langford, author of IN YOUR DEFENCE I don’t think there are any “bests” for me – that’s the honest truth - just “worsts” and more “worsts”. The guy with the tarantula was really quite nice, one of the better ones. But on the whole, I found online dating horrific, partly because everything felt fake and I had no idea what I wanted or needed. Raw and real and laugh-out-loud funny. So timely... Quilt on Fire is like a supportive friend reaching out a hand, saying it will be okay Karen Angelico, author of EVERYTHING WE ARE

The more interesting parts of the book: nursing, death and facts about the menopause are scattered through the chapters, but they are almost lost in the oversharing of the author’s life (way too much detail about her sex life and the drunken escapades of her friends). Along with frequent and unnecessarily use of the ‘f’ word, there is an irreverency about her writing which made me feel really sad. Such as, “It was all going so well until he took his top off. He had Jesus Loves Me tattooed on his chest”, and, “Bible Ben, as the mean kids called him”, but the author carries on calling him that throughout the book, even though she doesn’t consider herself one of the mean kids; as if we the reader won’t remember his name without its prefix. Rather than a celebration of womanhood, this book was for me a huge disappointment, and not the uplifting encouragement I’d hoped for. Quilt on Fire] stood out for its honesty and humour... A must-read for any woman in midlife Good Housekeeping, 'This month's 10 books to read right now' As a mother of teenagers , how important is it that they understand what you’re going through with the peri menopause? Christie Watson is fierce, funny and endearingly frank in her fantastic new memoir Jacqueline Wilson Monica Michelle has a passion for helping women share their brands with a wider audience. She is the CEO and co founder of Bloom TV, her first streaming TV network with floral focused content, and has now co founded with Joe, Made TV, that is specifically designed for artists and makers of all kinds.Sensational and so necessary. I really needed this book and I definitely won't be the only one. Women everywhere will weep with gratitude Tiffany Atkinson, author of LUMEN The incredible resource Allie mentioned for nationally documented quilt collections: www.quiltindex.com I’d always assumed menopause was about hot flashes and rage but, for me, these were not the most extreme symptoms. I had the terrifying feeling I’d lost my mind completely. I didn’t know what was happening, I felt I was having a catastrophic breakdown. Not only could I not remember details, I couldn’t remember who I was. It felt like I’d left my body and skin and gone somewhere else. I absolutely did not believe for a second that this could be anything to do with hormones. But as soon as I started HRT, I felt so much better. It worked within 24 hours – I was amazed. This is the story of Christie Watson's journey through midlife. The joy of letting go and the pain of the morning after, the unstoppable power of female friendship and the struggle to raise teenagers as a single parent. It lays bare the exhilaration, agony, wonder and fears of being a middle-aged woman with a wild heart, a changing body and a new set of challenges. And as her world takes on a different shape, there's something else she starts to feel: the hot flush of possibility...