Upstarts: Transforming Moments

More about the book

'Revelation! It wasn't like a religious experience or anything, significant moments never are. It's that slow dawning of recognition...'Maya Angelou, Melanie McFadyean, Priscilla Presley, Diane Abbott, Eileen Fairweather and Shreela Ghosh, among others, look to their teenage years to find a turning point that altered the course of their lives. What an extraordinary range of stories emerge: first love in a Jewish ghetto; betrayal and expulsion from school; the exhilaration of leaving home; the impact of Jimi Hendrix; teetering on the brink of suicide; refusing to believe the teacher who says university is not for the likes of you. In all our lives are moments of events - dramatic or quiet - that leave us with the certainty that never again will we quite be the same...