This is Not a Pity Memoir
ABI MORGAN
(JOHN MURRAY, 304 PP, 14.99)
TABLET BOOKSHOP PRICE £13.49 • TEL 020 7799 4064

Abi Morgan “almost had it all” (her words): a great career in scriptwriting (lots of awards); great partner-lover-best-friend in Jacob, “the captain of the ship”; great kids; great siblings; big house in north London; second home – Italy, of course.

What could go wrong? Everything, it turns out, and in an instant. Morgan’s life changed forever when she opened the bathroom door to find Jacob on the floor, dried blood around his mouth. He hadn’t slipped, it was some- thing else. He seemed to rally. At the hospital, they said it would be a one-nighter. Normal service was about to resume.

It never did. One night turned into 443, most of them with Jacob in an induced coma, intubated. Hope drained away. Jacob emerged from his coma in the end, more than a year after going into hospital. But there was no joyful homecoming. He returned a “ghost”, speaking in a strange monotone, conversation reduced to bald statements of need, like: “Crunchy Nut’s run out”.