Neurodiversity Celebration Week in the Library

'If you've ever been on a night out where you got blackout drunk and have laughed the next day as your friends tell you all the stupid stuff you said, that's what being autistic feels like for me: one long blackout night of drinking, except there's no socially sanctioned excuse for your gaffes and no one is laughing.' Fern Brady was told she couldn't be autistic because she's had loads of boyfriends and is good at eye contact. This is a story of how being female can get in the way of being autistic and how being autistic gets in the way of being the 'right kind' of woman.

Katherine May's work touches on nature, spirituality, slow living and neurodivergence. Her memoir ‘Wintering’ follows the time spent retreating to care and repair herself. She says “I really value the way I see the world and despite how hard it was growing up I love being an autistic adult. I experience the world in a very intense way and while that can be tormenting at times, it's also wonderful.”

Diagnosed with ADHD as a child, Jordan Stephens found his teens and twenties to be a whirl of career success and nurturing friendships but also a brutal pattern of self-harm, hedonism, destructive coping mechanisms and heartbreak. When he tried to live up to his own damaged expectations and his world exploded, he allowed himself to explore the pain he'd repressed his entire life. Unsparingly digging into the fear, tenderness and trauma, Jordan Stephens discovers what it means to be a modern man and how the price we pay for love, in all its forms, is worth it.

In this book, rising star entrepreneur Onyinye Udokporo shares her story of growing up dyslexic in a society where neurodivergence was always presented as a white male issue. Illuminating wider issues of systemic racism in the educational sector and providing a reminder that dyslexia can be found in any community and culture, this is an empowering story of surviving and thriving in the face of adversity.