Don't Hold My Head Down

Product Information

Don’t Hold My Head Down is comical and written in that incredibly chatty, almost babbling, way that makes it feel like reading a letter from a friend. But there were times when the text could do with being more honed and I found some of the sentences a bit too long and the joke too drawn out. Now don’t get me wrong, I can waffle with the best of them ( Northern Soul’s lovely Editor will attest to this) but sometimes less is more.

I pledged for this book on Unbound, so I'm not exactly an objective reviewer. That said, I only chose Holmes's book because another project fell through and I had credits to spare. And boy, did I make the right decision.The first part of the book is desperately sad in places, and the bad relationship that the author shared with sex at that time is well-explained and fully understood. It's awful that women can and do feel this way, and that men are so unaware that they exploit it for their own short-term satisfaction. We all must do better and make our sex lives as fulfilled as we want them to be, not what other people or society imply, demand, or suggest, and that comes through loud, clear and unambiguously.

The Don’t Hold My Head Down initiative encourages people to support their friends and family who are struggling with their mental health. The initiative encourages people to be understanding and supportive of their loved ones and to provide a safe space for them to express themselves without judgment. Don’t hold my head down by Lucy-Anne Holmes https://bookshop.quaker.org.uk/Dont-Hold-My-Head-Down_9781783526215 Now, I may be making potential Unbounders run a mile here but actually, I think the experience this is giving me is absolutely brilliant. I remember after my fourth novel I felt I couldn’t write another straight away, I wanted to be ‘in the world’ again. Writing is a solitary pursuit and you can just get lost in your own head and the screen. This crowd funding model of publishing forces you to be out there talking about your book, and I’m enjoying the connections I’m making and gaining confidence from doing this.Holmesin seksimatkan mullistavin yksittäinen oivallus oli se, että hän halusi ja nautti hitaammasta seksistä sekä itsensä että muiden kanssa. Myös tantraseksistä ja seksifestareista puhuminen etäännytti itseäni, ihan kuin seksi olisi jotenkin pienen piirin hallitsema salaisuus. Että vasta kun tiedät tantran kaikki kujeet ja saat ne 14 erilaista orgasmia (… suhtaudun tähän vähän skeptisyydellä) olet boss oman seksuaalisuutesi kanssa. Totta kai jokaisen seksuaalisuus on omanlaisensa ja uniikki, ja Holmes nyt löysi hänen seksuaalisuutensa avaimen tällä tavoin, mutta olisin kaivannut vielä vähän jotain toista otetta, ehkä vähän niiden omien löytöjen ja tapojen haastamista. Vaikka kirjassa muuten olikin loistavasti isompaa yhteiskunnallista otetta, näissä kohdin se jäi hauraaksi. Women are capable of powerful, transcendental pleasure, but that fact has not just been lost, it hasn't been respected at all. Women's sexual pleasure has been suppressed, feared, denied and punished over thousands of years, and women have been murdered and mutilated because of it" (p. 103). I had a moment early on when I met with an editor to discuss it and she looked at me baffled and said ‘why would you want to write about this?’ as though I was mad to want to share all this stuff about sex. And another editor who I felt was trying to steer the thrust of the book away from what I had in mind. But, I had been campaigning for two and a half years at the time, going around the country talking about porn, sex, body image and some of my own experiences that are in the book, and the response was generally a group of people afterwards wanting to talk about it more, or saying how inspiring it was to hear someone talk so frankly about sex and porn. The Don’t Hold My Head Down initiative is not only beneficial for those struggling with their mental health, but it can also be beneficial for the music industry as a whole. By reducing the stigma around mental health, the initiative hopes to create an environment in which people are more likely to seek help and support for their mental health needs.