An Extra Pair of Hands by Kate Mosse - Non Fiction - Hardback

Condition: BRAND NEW
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781788162616
Publisher: Wellcome Collection (Profile Books)

Overview:
An Extra Pair of Hands: A Story of Caring, Ageing and Everyday Acts of Love is bestselling novelist Kate Mosse's candid, deeply personal memoir about becoming a family carer in middle age. Moving between her father's Parkinson's, her mother's widowhood, and her role supporting her 90-year-old mother-in-law, Mosse writes with warmth, humour, and unflinching honesty. Speaking to the millions of unseen carers across the UK, this hardback is a moving tribute to the small, everyday acts of love that hold families together, and a celebration of ageing with dignity.

About the Book:
Kate Mosse is best known for her bestselling historical fiction, but here she turns her storytelling gift inward, to her own family. An Extra Pair of Hands charts her journey from helping her mother nurse her father through Parkinson's disease, through supporting her mother in widowhood, to becoming an everyday carer for Granny Rosie, her husband's 90-year-old mother. Rather than a manual or a misery memoir, this is a book about the "gentle heroism" of ordinary carers: the shared meals, the held hands, the late-night phone calls, and the quiet negotiations between guilt, exhaustion, and love. Mosse does not shy away from the harder realities of caregiving, the mind-numbing repetition, the bureaucracy, the grief, and the powerlessness, but she balances these with moments of genuine joy and connection. Woven through are wider reflections on how society regards older people, on the myth of independence, and on what it means to grow old with grace in a culture that often looks away from ageing. With around 8.8 million people in the UK currently providing unpaid care, this book gives voice to an invisible army and offers solace, recognition, and companionship to anyone juggling love and duty. Praised by outlets including the Guardian and the Independent, and named a Best Book for Summer, it is both a literary memoir and a genuinely useful companion for carers navigating similar territory in their own lives.

Key Benefits:

• Written by Kate Mosse, an internationally bestselling novelist with over eight million book sales worldwide.
• A candid, comforting read for the UK's millions of family carers and their loved ones.
• Explores Parkinson's, widowhood, and elder care with honesty, humour, and hope.
• Praised by the Guardian, the Independent, Ian Rankin, Matt Haig, and Rachel Joyce.
• Beautiful hardback edition, ideal as a gift for carers, family members, or memoir lovers.

About the Author:
Kate Mosse is an international bestselling novelist, playwright and non-fiction author, with sales of more than eight million copies in 38 languages. She is best known for her Languedoc Trilogy, Labyrinth, Sepulchre and Citadel, and for Gothic novels including The Winter Ghosts and The Taxidermist's Daughter. Renowned for bringing under-heard histories to life, Mosse is the Founder Director of the Women's Prize for Fiction. She lives in West Sussex, where she has personally cared for her father, mother and mother-in-law, the experiences that inspired this memoir.

Why You'll Love This Book:
A heartfelt, honest memoir that honours carers and the elders who shape our lives. Kate Mosse's warm, wise voice offers empathy, comfort, and practical perspective, wrapped in a beautiful hardback edition perfect for gifting.

Please Note: Cover shown is the UK edition; ISBN and cover may vary slightly by print run.