We’re thrilled to be welcoming Terri White and Heidi James to Manchester to discuss COMING UNDONE and THE SOUND MIRROR – two incredible books which use memoir and fiction respectively to explore themes of trauma and class. Terri and Heidi will be in conversation with host Naomi Frisby.

Coming Undone: A Memoir – Terri White

To everyone else, Terri White appeared to be living the dream – living in New York City, with a top job editing a major magazine. In reality, she was struggling with the trauma of an abusive childhood and rapidly skidding towards a mental health crisis that would land her in a psychiatric ward.

Coming Undone is Terri’s story of her unravelling, and her precarious journey back from a life in pieces.

Terri White was Editor-in-Chief of Empire magazine, having previously edited some of the most read titles in the UK and US, including Time Out New York and Shortlist, where she was named Men’s Magazine Editor of the Year. She has also written for the Guardian and The Pool. Coming Undone is her first book.

The Sound Mirror – Heidi James

‘Tamara is going to kill her mother, but she isn’t the villain. Tamara just has to finish what began at her birth and put an end to the damage encoded in her blood. Quitting her job in Communications, Tamara dresses carefully and hires a car, making the trip from London to her hometown in Kent, to visit her mother for the last time. Accompanied by a chorus of ancestors, Tamara is harried by voices from the past and the future that reveal the struggles, joys and secrets of these women’s lives that continue to echo through and impact her own.’ The Sound Mirror spans three familial generations from British Occupied India to Southern England, through intimately rendered characters, Heidi James has crafted a haunting and moving examination of class, war, violence, family and shame from the rich details of ordinary lives.

Heidi James was born in the Medway Towns, Kent; moving to London when she was 17. She has a PhD in English Literature (despite not having A’ Levels nor an undergraduate degree) and lectures in English Literature and Creative Writing. Heidi has written three novels, all published by Bluemoose books: The Wounding, So The Doves (a Sunday Times Crime Book of The Month) and The Sound Mirror.

Naomi Frisby is a writer, interviewer and educator. Her work has been published in Trauma: Writing About Art and Mental Health (Dodo Ink) and The Book of Sheffield (Comma Press). Her short stories have been shortlisted for The White Review Short Story Prize, and longlisted for the Manchester Fiction Prize. She was recently awarded a multi-artform micro-commission by Ilkley Literature Festival. She co-hosts the books podcast Late To It and is a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University.