The Bah! Tuesday book reviews aren’t really reviews, really, hence the new title – the Bah! Tuesday Book. (To clarify: they are reviews because I review books, but they’re not because I only choose books I like and I think there’s a good chance that Bah! readers will like. So, Bah! Tuesday Book Recommendations really. But we’ll stick with Bah! Tuesday Books.)

You may be wondering what’s prompted this reflection. Well, it’s the fact that this week I am being obviously partisan, rather than more subtly so. Because this week I am telling you about a book with me in it.

‘What I Wish I Knew About Cancer’ by Marty Wilson and Gary Bertwhistle.

Some months ago my dear friend Rob from Indigo put me in touch with his friend Marty, who is the brains behind the ‘What I Wish I Knew’ series of books. The premise of the series is that your current self is giving your younger self advice, something that I wholeheartedly approve of, because every so often I look back at myself and desperately want to do a timey-wimey thing and give me a hug and tell me it will be all right, really, it will, I promise, no matter how it feels right now. So when Marty asked if I would be interviewed for the cancer book, I agreed, even though I also had to supply a photo of myself with bad hair in long-ago days.

This all happened in the autumn of last year. I forgot all about it until a parcel arrived on my doorstep last week, containing The Actual Book.

Obviously, I’m biased, but it is really lovely book. Lovely in the sense of: thick paper, good layout, attention to detail. But, more than that, the content is genuinely inspiring. There’s this from Jo Lovelock:

Everyone is unique and your experience is that – just yours. Listen to people’s views, smile, then do whatever you want. Trust yourself and do lots of stuff you like.

This from Mel Cain:

One thing cancer gave me was a superb bullshit detector. I remember having a conversation with my uncle who had had a couple of heart attacks, and he said, ‘Being faced with your own mortality makes you realise what’s important in life and what’s bullshit.’

And my favourite, from Warrick Try:

When cancer is first diagnosed, some people start to die almost immediately; others start to live. The choice is yours.

I’m honoured to be in such amazing company.

You want to see the page with me and the younger-self-with-bad-hair photo, don’t you? Here you go….

The books – including What I Wish I Knew About Love, Motherhood, Nursing, Health and Fitness, and At Eighteen – are available from Marty-s website, here.

What would you tell your younger self?