The Owl at the Window

Book excerpt: The Owl at the Window is a dramatic, moving and funny memoir. An emotional, ultimately uplifting tale of loss and hope. 'Amazing and completely compelling...both funny and sad, and so moving, I couldn't put it down.' - Alison Steadman 'Devastatingly moving and hilarious in equal measure. I have laughed and cried during the reading of a single sentence.' - Caroline Quentin Winner of Best Memoir at the East Anglian Book Awards 'She is dead. She was here just now and she was alive. How can she suddenly be dead? People in history are dead. Old people are dead. Grandparents are dead. Other people are dead. Not people like me. Not this person. The person I was married to. Had a child with. Not the person who was standing next to me. Chatting. Laughing. Being.' Shock is just one of many emotions explored in award-winning TV comedy writer Carl Gorham's account of his bereavement which is by turns deeply moving and darkly humorous. Part love story, part widower's diary, part tales of single parenting, it tells of his wife's cancer, her premature death and his attempts to rebuild his life afterwards with his six -year old daughter. Realised in a series of vivid snapshots, it takes the reader on an extraordinary journey from Oxford to Australia, from Norfolk to Hong Kong through fear, despair, pain and anger to hope, laughter and renewal. The Owl at the Window is a fresh and original exploration of what it means to lose a partner in your forties, and how Carl learned to live again.