There were so many questions to ask about my situation, and so many answers that could not be given. Living with the questions was the only way through. 26 July 2006 This journal is becoming vital. I can sit and weep, I can regret the bloody genes, I can say that every bad joke and…
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).
Scars
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…
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…
