Cancer: Through the eyes of ten women

This is a collection of ten women’s accounts of their experiences of cancer. None of the accounts are “conventional” cancer stories of heroic defiance in the face of adversity. Debbie Dickinson imagines herself as music incarnate, as instruments and voices, different selves, combine and conflict. Jackie Stacey confronts the cancer narrative head on – likening it to Hollywood structures, with heroes, villains and closures – and looks for a different way to convey her own story. Patricia Duncker examines the anger so often excized from the heroic stories, and looks at the reaction of others to her and her disease. Felly Nkweto Simmonds finds cancer a tempering experience, bringing strength, but also aloneness. Poet Marilyn Hacker uses a sonnet sequence to convey the emotions her “Cancer Winter” aroused. Carole Colbourn chronicles the painful dissolution and renewal of her marriage.