There is so much here for smart, creative women from this smart, creative woman, plus I have only just discovered Lindsay reading extracts from her powerful memoir – I am already hooked (and now a complete fan of her work)
of White Ink – Sunday Times bestselling ghost writer and Orwell Prize nominee29th January 1946
Helen ponders whether she can legitimately be married in white given what is implied about how intimate they became during Tom’s recent leave. Tom’s words, meanwhile, feel infused with prescience:
“Helen darling, don’t let thoughts like not being able to have children ever enter your mind. I’ll make a wager with you that we will have a family in no time. Well, next to no time. Other people have different ideas about children. We happen to be both of the same mind in that respect. But we will have to be careful not to spoil our lives with burdens we are unable to bear.
Let’s get married first, and not create a scandal talking like this. Oh! If I had money you could have a good time with these letters. I’m signing my life away here.”
For Lindsay, it’s late January 2019, and her therapist suggests more intensive therapy which she is resistant to. She describes her relentless schedule; reasons why she ‘can’t’ do it.
She does not know whether meeting three times a week is necessary, if she ‘deserves’ it or if it’s been offered because the trainee psychoanalyst thinks she’d make a good case. Lindsay details her experience of CBT and all the self-help she has put faith in over the years.
