The World I Fell Out Of

The World I Fell Out Of
Andrew Marr

Melanie Reid

From the award-winning writer of The Times Magazine's 'Spinal Column': a deeply moving and often darkly funny memoir about disaster and triumphWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ANDREW MARRIs this what it feels like, I thought, losing everything? Steel shutters were clanging down in my head: I dared not even think about my son, just emerging from his teenage years, or of my sorry future.But I could safely bear witness and carry on writing in my head. A correspondent from a hidden war.On Good Friday, 2010 Melanie Reid fell from her horse, breaking her neck and fracturing her lower back. She was 52.Paralysed from the top of her chest down, she was to spend almost a full year in hospital, determinedly working towards gaining as much movement in her limbs as possible, and learning to navigate her way through a world that had previously been invisible to her.As a journalist Melanie had always turned to words and now, on a spinal ward peopled by an extraordinary array of individuals who were similarly at sea, she decided that writing would be her life-line. The World I Fell Out Of is an account of that year, and of those that followed. It is the untold ‘back story’ behind Melanie’s award-winning ‘Spinal Column’ in The Times Magazine and a testament to ‘the art of getting on with it’.Unflinchingly honest and beautifully observed, this is a memoir about the joy – and the risks – of riding horses, the complicated nature of heroism, the bonds of family and the comfort of strangers. Above all, The World I Fell Out Of is a reminder that at any moment the life we know can be turned upside down – and a plea to start appreciating what we have while we have it.

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Copyright (#u8cf8f5d7-9651-55ff-ba0b-dc99b8264b25)

4th Estate

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This eBook first published in Great Britain by 4th Estate in 2019

Copyright © Melanie Reid 2019

Foreword copyright © Andrew Marr 2019

Cover design by Heike Schüssler

Melanie Reed asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988

Naomi Shihab Nye, excerpt from ‘Kindness’ from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems (Far Corner Books). Copyright ©1995 by Naomi Shihab Nye. Reprinted with the permission of the author.

T.S. Eliot, excerpt from ‘The Hollow Men’ from Collected Poems 1909–1962 (Faber and Faber). Copyright © T. S. Eliot.

Excerpt from ‘An Epilogue’ reprinted with the permission of The Society of Authors as the Representatives of the Estate of John Masefield.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008291372

Ebook Edition © March 2019 ISBN: 9780008291402

Version: 2019-02-22

Dedication (#u8cf8f5d7-9651-55ff-ba0b-dc99b8264b25)

To Dave and Doug and all the people forced to live in the parallel world – I didn’t realise you were there until I joined you.

Contents

Cover (#ud56b94d3-c389-5800-a23e-8370ee4e6c77)

Title Page (#u84b82f2f-bc3f-54bb-9fbe-ead3d88582d4)

Copyright (#u646ed69b-d7f3-59e7-bcfa-1a38c9b03a43)

Dedication (#u2e2a2a8e-cae9-56a5-b068-3fccda1d2cda)

Foreword by Andrew Marr (#ufb087b0d-8d84-51a4-8c22-b379e2716490)

Prologue (#u26cbbff6-d191-504d-a8ba-e7a313f82b5a)

CHAPTER ONE: Farewell Happy Fields (#u10adab1d-db1f-5b7b-9f45-8ac1473e2b17)

CHAPTER TWO: Put Your Finger in the Crow’s Nest (#u33f94e2a-8b37-53e3-b885-b809fb40284e)

CHAPTER THREE: Swallow Diving from the Seventh Floor (#u912ddc3f-89bd-5f93-8fef-ace9a9ef8a39)

CHAPTER FOUR: The Angels of Mons (#uab911186-1097-5dc9-916b-99f9dbcea752)

CHAPTER FIVE: Pollyanna Syndrome (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SIX: This Way Madness Lies (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SEVEN: Aunt Averil and the Hidden Army (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER EIGHT: Home (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER NINE: A Lost Body (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER TEN: Just Like a Woman (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Of String Girths and Running Martingales (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER TWELVE: When Melly Met Nelly (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: In Bed with a Walrus (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Am I Human or am I Dancer? (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: A Pocketful of Diamonds (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

Specialist Spinal Notes (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)