Without Alice

By D J Kirkby

‘Without Alice’ is a story filled with real emotion. As you follow the main characters you get to experience with them love, hate and everything in between.

Stephen has a secret. A very big one, and as you read ‘Without Alice’ you will become aware of the nature of his secret and its deep repercussions. As the plot unfolds, you discover how his life with his wife Jennie and son Marcel is only part of his story. Slowly the reader discovers how his life means nothing without Alice.

This novel explores some important and timeless themes. It covers childbirth, motherhood, family, fatherhood and friendship. It highlights how all of these can come under strain from the pressure of lies and secrets.

The story of ‘Without Alice’ is fast-moving and gripping. I found myself wanting to read ‘just one more chapter’ before I could put it down.

The reader is finally rewarded with an ending which brings all the strands of the complex plot together in a satisfying conclusion.

‘Without Alice’ is published by new publisher Punked Books and you can buy a copy here.


Reviewed by Helen M Hunt

From Zaftig To Aspie

by D J Kirkby

Denyse Kirkby's vivid memoir about her childhood experiences not only gave me an enthralling insight to her fascinating lifestyle and of those around her, but also took me back to those carefree days of my own youth. Despite having enjoyed a completely different childhood to hers, that didn’t even inhabit the same continent, reading this book evoked long-forgotten feelings, of fears and hopes that we have as young children.

This book is beautifully written. Each chapter covers a different memory, with every story as fascinating as the next. She describes her surroundings with such clarity that I felt sure I was there with her, so much so that it was almost like watching a film I didn’t want to end.

I couldn’t bear to put this wonderful book down, and longed to keep reading and learning more about how it was to grow up with a hippy mother, in Canada in the early seventies. Learning about the various places they lived, how she coped with experiences, both wonderful and tragic, whilst being able to almost smell the heat and the scent of the air around her.

Denyse describes how it felt to be different, not only in the way that her mother chose to live, and the friends and relatives that shared their lives, but also with her understanding of her surroundings and contemporaries.

She explains what it was like, and her reaction to being diagnosed at the age of forty with Aspergers Syndrome. My nephew has Aspergers, which made reading the book, and seeing her childhood through her eyes, even more riveting. I should think that anyone hoping to be transported into someone else’s colourful and beautifully depicted childhood couldn’t ask for a better and more fascinating read.

This is a book that I shall keep to read again.

Reviewed by Deborah Carr