Isla Aitken

Making Pearls From Grit Isla Aitken

Diagnosed with breast cancer while on holiday in Japan, editor, one-time environmental activist and wannabe politician Isla distracts herself with tourist adventures - including snorkelling in the South China Sea, learning about slipper etiquette and negotiating the three Japanese alphabets. Back in the less exotic UK, in between chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy Isla considers those other scenes from life - such as depression and farting during sex - and realises how people can be fully constructed by life's obstacles. When the family cat dies of lung cancer just as Isla is being cured, her anger at the illness's victory is undermined by her new discovery of the Japanese philosophy of "ikigai" reason for being. This memoir captures much that a cancer experience encompasses.