23rd June, 6.30pm
Join us for an evening of reading, conversation and signing with Tiffany Philippou and Chloë Ashby.
TOTALLY FINE (AND OTHER LIES I’VE TOLD MYSELF):
Shame is a monster that grows inside us. We all have the monster, it’s what we decide to do with it that determines how we live our lives. This is my story …
One day in the summer of 2008, I was sat on a train travelling back to London from a weekend of partying with friends when I received a phone call that suddenly changed everything. I was told my boyfriend was in hospital. He died seven days later. I spent most of my twenties pretending this never happened.
It has taken me many years to be able to tell this story, just as it has taken me many years to understand that there is no right way to grieve and no right way to live. Whatever pain you’re holding on to, I’m writing this for you.
In this incredibly moving and life-affirming memoir, Tiffany shares her story so that it might bring solace to anyone living with shame, guilt or loss.
WET PAINT:
Since the death of her best friend Grace, twenty-six-year-old Eve has learned to keep everything and everyone at arm’s length. Safe in her detachment, she scrapes along waiting tables and cleaning her shared flat in exchange for cheap rent, finding solace in her small routines.
But when a chance encounter at work brings her past thundering into her present, Eve becomes consumed by painful memories of Grace. And soon her precariously maintained life begins to unravel: she loses her job, gets thrown out of her flat, and risks pushing away the one decent man who cares about her.
Taking up life-modelling to pay the bills, Eve lays bare her body but keeps hidden the mounting chaos inside her head. When her self-destructive urges spiral out of control, she’s forced to confront the traumatic event that changed the course of her life, and to finally face her grief and guilt.
Searingly incisive, darkly funny and achingly poignant, WET PAINT is a novel about youth, friendship, suppressed grief, and the way women’s bodies are looked at in life and in art.
TIFFANY PHILIPPOU is a writer and podcaster. She writes for The iPaper, Refinery29, Stylist and hosts the podcasts Is This Working? and Totally fine with Tiffany Philippou.
CHLOË ASHBY is an author and arts journalist. Since graduating from the Courtauld Institute of Art, she has written for publications such as the TLS, Guardian, FT Life & Arts, Spectator and frieze. WET PAINT is her debut novel.
Join us for an evening of reading, conversation and signing with Tiffany Philippou and Chloë Ashby.
TOTALLY FINE (AND OTHER LIES I’VE TOLD MYSELF):
Shame is a monster that grows inside us. We all have the monster, it’s what we decide to do with it that determines how we live our lives. This is my story …
One day in the summer of 2008, I was sat on a train travelling back to London from a weekend of partying with friends when I received a phone call that suddenly changed everything. I was told my boyfriend was in hospital. He died seven days later. I spent most of my twenties pretending this never happened.
It has taken me many years to be able to tell this story, just as it has taken me many years to understand that there is no right way to grieve and no right way to live. Whatever pain you’re holding on to, I’m writing this for you.
In this incredibly moving and life-affirming memoir, Tiffany shares her story so that it might bring solace to anyone living with shame, guilt or loss.
WET PAINT:
Since the death of her best friend Grace, twenty-six-year-old Eve has learned to keep everything and everyone at arm’s length. Safe in her detachment, she scrapes along waiting tables and cleaning her shared flat in exchange for cheap rent, finding solace in her small routines.
But when a chance encounter at work brings her past thundering into her present, Eve becomes consumed by painful memories of Grace. And soon her precariously maintained life begins to unravel: she loses her job, gets thrown out of her flat, and risks pushing away the one decent man who cares about her.
Taking up life-modelling to pay the bills, Eve lays bare her body but keeps hidden the mounting chaos inside her head. When her self-destructive urges spiral out of control, she’s forced to confront the traumatic event that changed the course of her life, and to finally face her grief and guilt.
Searingly incisive, darkly funny and achingly poignant, WET PAINT is a novel about youth, friendship, suppressed grief, and the way women’s bodies are looked at in life and in art.
TIFFANY PHILIPPOU is a writer and podcaster. She writes for The iPaper, Refinery29, Stylist and hosts the podcasts Is This Working? and Totally fine with Tiffany Philippou.
CHLOË ASHBY is an author and arts journalist. Since graduating from the Courtauld Institute of Art, she has written for publications such as the TLS, Guardian, FT Life & Arts, Spectator and frieze. WET PAINT is her debut novel.