The Blue Dress

In this quiet, clear-eyed collection Townsend meditates on the varieties of loss, childhood bereavement, depression and divorce to arrive at the realisation that it is through loss that we come into possession of some of life's most profound gifts. She articulates what it was like to grow up motherless, explores life in a step-family, scrutinises depression, breaks codes of feminine silence, and celebrates the enduring power of place.