Lucy Easthope is a disaster and emergency planner. I enjoyed her book about her work and what she has learned from it – see here for my review. Her latest book Come What May uses her experience to talk about how we should prepare for disaster and crises in our lives and how we can cope with them. I also thought that it was very applicable for anyone considering a large change in their circumstances. I listened to this on audio where it was read by the author.
This is a book about building resilience but it’s not a vapid, self-help book but a practical manual filled with examples from the real world. The author talks about what constitutes good help and what bad help looks like. She shares the recovery journey and the setbacks we may encounter. She argues against building up our hopes too high and being realistic about what might, and might not, be achieved. She explains how our recovery might reach a slump and how to get out of it, and warns us that we might become helpless because of the actions of others.
This is a brilliant book. It explains a lot that we can see in the world around us and is designed to help us find a way through when events are difficult and overwhelming. It also helps us prepare for what might happen. The author understands how people react and can explain us to ourselves without getting too immersed in psychology. She never implies that people could cope better if they just got a grip on things and shows us how the systems and culture of our world work to determine our reaction to disaster. She encourages us to be kind to ourselves and others.
I highly recommend this book, which is written in a very accessible way and which I think can help all of us, whether or not we are facing a crisis.
This is one of my audio books for 2025 – see here for the others.
Anne Is Reading 