Catherine Simpson is a novelist, a journalist, a poet and short story writer who is based in Edinburgh. Catherine’s debut novel, Truestory, was published by Sandstone Press in 2015, and tells the blackly comic tale of Alice who is struggling to raise her son on the isolated farm he refuses to leave. Her son, Sam, as Asperger’s and an inner world hidden from his parents. The novel was inspired by Catherine’s experiences raising her daughter, Nina, who is autistic, and Catherine and Nina have campaigned and continue to campaign for increased acceptance of autism.

And in February 2019, Catherine’s memoir, When I Had A Little Sister, was published by 4th Estate. It is a story of grief, bereavement and mental illness precipitated by the death of Catherine’s younger sister, Tricia, who took her own life at the age of 46 in 2013.

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Catherine Simpson is an author who grew up on a Lancashire farm in 1970s. The image of life in the countryside is often painted as idyllic, peaceful and the perfect place to escape. However, the number of suicides in the UK farming community tell a very different story. Catherine joins us on the podcast to share her tragic, yet uplifting, family story.

Catherine's website: https://www.catherine-simpson.co.uk

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