Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Stirrings

By: Catherine Taylor
Narrated by: Catherine Taylor
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Winner of the 2024 TLS Ackerley Prize

'Part poignant memoir of time and place. Part record of the violence, and indifference, against which most girls grow up. The Stirrings is a pleasure and a shock' Eimear McBride

'A superb, moving and disturbing memoir - haunting and unforgettable' Jonathan Coe

This is a story about one young woman coming of age, and about the place and time that shaped her: the North of England in the 1970s and 80s.

About the scorching summer of 1976 - the last Catherine Taylor would spend with both her parents in their home in Sheffield.

About the Yorkshire Ripper, the serial killer whose haunting presence in Catherine's childhood was matched only by the aching absence of her own father.

About a country thrown into disarray by the nuclear threat and the Miners' Strike, just as Catherine's adolescent body was invaded by a debilitating illness.

About 1989's 'Second Summer of Love', a time of sexual awakening for Catherine, and the unforeseen consequences that followed it.

About a tragic accident, and how the insidious dangers facing women would became increasingly apparent as Catherine crossed into to adulthood.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Catherine Taylor (P)2023 Weidenfeld & Nicolson
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Went to London, Took the Dog cover art
Seventeen cover art
O Brother cover art
A Northern Wind cover art
A Young Lady's Miscellany cover art
Granta cover art
One Hundred Summers cover art
Are We Home Yet? cover art
A Child of the East End cover art
The Silent Twins cover art
Modern Nature cover art
Looking for Eliza cover art
We Were Young cover art

Critic reviews

Captures the fear and euphoria of growing up with precision and wry, spiky flair (Susie Boyt)
From chlorine and Quavers to the Jesus and Mary Chain, an engaging personal and political 1980s awakening (Richard Beard)

What listeners say about The Stirrings

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great memoir of a Sheffield young woman

I loved this memoir. I am a similar age as the author - who also narrates her book with much feeling- and many of her experiences resonate deeply with me. The fear felt by women of going out alone in the era of the Yorkshire Ripper, the student days when the importance of everything is heightened, the internal emotional damage of a parent leaving. This makes it sound quite bleak but she also recalls funny small details of what she ate, drank, and wore. I loved it and would like to read more of her work.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it

I really enjoyed this book.
I’m a geordie lass but have lived in Sheffield since 2000 so I know a lot of the places mentioned.
Lots of nostalgia I could relate to.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!