Bah! Book Update

Well, the Bah! book has been out in the world for a couple of weeks now, and I thought it was time for a bit of  a review.

So… let’s start with the reviews. Over at , I’m excited to have 3 5* reviews, which say lovely things about the book. The one that really made my day (week/month/life) is from someone with terminal cancer who says the Bah! book made her feel ‘lifted’. It’s such a privilege to be able to help.

I’ve had a lot of emails, texts and tweets, too, from people who say simply “Loved it!’ to telling me that they wish they’d had the book when someone they loved was diagnosed, or being treated, or dying. Again, what I have wanted all along is for the Bah! book to be useful, so I’m glad. And I’m also glad to hear that people are reading the Bah! book and laughing as well as having the odd sniff.

I was pleased to get a mention over at Maggie’s Centres blog, although it does seem that the blogger herself wasn’t that keen! Take a look .

Bah! readers from up and down the country have been getting in touch to let me know that they are checking that their local bookshops have a copy of the Bah! book, and turning them face out when they do find them. Ned does regular checks of his local Waterstone’s and WHSmith and texts me to let me know how many are selling. (About one a day, it seems.)

And – something that I hadn’t anticipated, but I’m thrilled about – readers are telling their GPs, surgeons, breast are nurses, and oncologists about the Bah! book, and they in turn are starting to recommend them.

I’ve always felt that, if the Bah! book is a success (by which I mean commercial success, well-known-book success, because frankly that Amazon review has made it a success for me, right there) it will be the word-of-mouth, passing-from-hand-to-hand that gets it out there. As far as the Proper Press are concerned, I’m not sure I’m much of a story – ‘woman survives breast cancer and writes book about how to think differently about cancer and maybe make it a bit less awful’ doesn’t really have a lot of drama to it. (Although you never know. A girl can dream.)

The trouble with word-of-mouth is that it needs a lot of mouths. So, if you’ve read the Bah! book and think it’s worth the candle, please consider doing one of the following.

- Go to and post a review.

- Go to and read the reviews, and if you like them, click the button for finding the review helpful.

- Go to nd ‘like’ the book.

- Tell your friends on facebook. (Ooh, Bah! finally made it to by the way!)

- Tweet your thoughts, using the hashtag #bahbook.

- Tell your GP or practice nurse about the book.

-  to add to the Bah! book page.

- Keep turning the book so it faces out on bookshelves.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I’ll keep you posted.