This is the story of the celebrated poet Yrsa Daley-Ward, and all the things that happened – “even the Terrible Things (and God, there were Terrible Things)”. It’s about her childhood in the north-west of England with her beautiful, careworn mother Marcia, Linford (the man formerly known as Dad, “half-fun, half-frightening”) and her little brother Roo, who sees things written in the stars. It’s about growing up and discovering the power and fear of her own sexuality, of pitch grey days of pills and powder and encounters. It’s about damage and pain, but also joy. Told with raw intensity, shocking honesty and the poetry of the darkest of fairy tales, The Terrible is a memoir of going under, losing yourself, and finding your voice.