All in My Head

Reviews

For five years Jessica Morris fought the deadliest of brain tumours - glioblastoma (GBM) - but that was not all. She set up an international charity in the battle to render GBM treatable rather than terminal. This utterly uplifting book is a remarkable insight into a disease and one woman's battle to beat it. Doctors and patients alike responded to her determination to galvanise them in the search for a cure The pages are immense, in many ways grueling and painful and affecting, but also so deeply uplifting and wondrous. The writing is meticulous, I felt that Jess was holding my hand as I read it, she is so very present. This is a book of love and life, of courage and hope, of loss and togetherness Jessica Morris' account of living with brain cancer is not a book about illness, or loss, or navigating treatment options, although all of these elements are there. But in a story that travels to the outer edges of human experience, Morris's wit, determination, and powerful literary insight make this book an extraordinary exercise in joy, even as it breaks your heart. It is impossible to read All In My Head and not come away ignited All In My Head is both painful and uplifting. It taught me a valuable lesson - to go on fighting even when you can't win. Jessica charts the ups as well as the downs with searing honesty. I felt by the final beautiful chapter nothing could take away the essence of Jess, her boldness, optimism, intelligence and the will to fight on. She made me think, and she made me cry, and of course, being Jess, she made me laugh What a force she was, to turn her harrowing experience into something so positive, for the benefit of others. So much vision and energy in the face of such an ordeal. The book is infused with her generous spirit and self-debunking humour and evident throughout are her great gift for friendship, her love of family and zest for life Indomitably optimistic yet sharp, philosophical and frank, Jessica Morris is alive in these pages: a woman faced with a terminal illness who galvanised her doctors, supported fellow patients and outlived expectations. But even if luck or medicine had not made that possible, her contagious warmth and wit would remain a force to be reckoned with. To meet Jessica in this book is to join the ranks of those who loved her, and whose lives she improved every day A remarkable read - life-affirming and funny and full of force and vigour and love Written in a voice that is loud, defiant and beautiful, and that demands to be heard...a joyful, stubborn, rambunctious fight Expand reviews