I’m lucky, my scars are quite neat and flat, and the incision lines themselves now silvery. The scars are not quite symmetrical – the surgeon said that’s because my breasts weren’t quite symmetrical. 28 June 2006 This morning I woke thinking about breasts and femininity – how empowering to have breasts, but how potentially empowering…
Author: Clare Best
I am Clare Best – poet, writer, librettist, teacher of creative writing.
My first career was as a fine bookbinder. I've also worked as a bookseller, and for many years as an editor.
Poetry publications: Treasure Ground (HappenStance 2009), Excisions (Waterloo Press 2011), Breastless (Pighog Press 2011), CELL (Frogmore Press 2015), Springlines (Little Toller 2017), Each Other (Waterloo Press 2019), End of Season / Fine di stagione (Frogmore Press 2022), Beyond the Gate (Worple Press, 2023).
Memoir: The Missing List (Linen Press 2018).
Looking back
Five years ago, I was trying to decide whether to have preventive bilateral mastectomy. Here’s the first entry in the journal I was to write for eighteen months. 27 June 2006 I am contemplating having my breasts removed. Elective surgery. Still an op little known here in the UK… at Guys Hospital four or five women…
Clare Best 