Self Contained, Emma John
Self Contained, Emma John
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Self Contained
Scenes from a single life

Author: Emma John

Narrator: Emma John

Unabridged: 6 hr 48 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Cassell

Published: 05/06/2021


Synopsis

There is a piece of cod-wisdom regularly dispensed to single women: romance will arrive when you least expect it. I had assumed it would also make its own travel arrangements too.

Emma John is in her 40s; she is neither married, nor partnered, with child or planning to be.

In her hilarious and unflinching memoir, Self Contained, she asks why the world only views a woman as complete when she is no longer a single figure and addresses what it means to be alone when everyone else isn't.

In her book, she captures what it is to be single in your forties, from sharing a twin room with someone you've never met on a group holiday (because the couples have all the doubles with ensuite) to coming to the realisation that maybe your singleness isn't a temporary arrangement, that maybe you aren't pre-married at all, and in fact you are self-contained.

The book is an exploration of being lifelong single and what happens if you don't meet the right person, don't settle down with the wrong person and realise the biggest commitment is to yourself.

About Emma John

Emma John is an award-winning author and journalist who writes regularly for the Guardian and Observer. Emma was the first woman to win a Sports Journalism Award in the UK, though she is known for her writing on music, theatre, film, books and travel. Creator and host of the Guardian's cricket podcast The Spin, Emma is a regular voice on national radio, appearing on documentaries and comedy shows on BBC R4, as well as providing sports analysis for BBC Radio5Live and talkSPORT. Her previous books include Wayfaring Stranger: A Musical Journey Through The American South and Following On: A Memoir Of Teenage Obsession And Terrible Cricket.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Nick on November 03, 2021

I knew Emma at university, so I've taken a proprietorial pleasure in seeing her name in newspaper bylines over the years. She was in the year above me and we weren't close but we both studied English and were into student drama, so we did rub shoulders. The force of her personality was much in evide......more

Goodreads review by Susan on June 08, 2021

Sometimes you see a book that just seems to have been written with you in mind and Contained Scenes From A Single Life by Emma John seemed to be one of those books. It was and it is! I am single, resolutely so, happily so most of the time and yet I have often felt like a square peg the world is tryi......more

Goodreads review by Mandy on February 13, 2022

The author candidly talks about her life as a single woman in London. I found it thought provoking and funny.......more

Goodreads review by Vishy on May 17, 2021

I read Emma John's first book 'Following On', which is on cricket, recently, and I loved it so much that I decided to read her newest book 'Self-Contained : Scenes from a Single Life'. This one came out just ten days back and so it is literally hot off the press. The book starts with a party to which......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer on June 04, 2021

This is an honest and personal insight into Emma’s observations of her single life at different points in time and events. It is funny, it is sad, it is reflective - Emma captures aspects of single life that only a person who is not attached to someone can see and feel and experience - from having t......more