Description
Book SynopsisThis is Martha Wainwright’s heartfelt memoir about growing up in a bohemian musical family and her experiences with love, loss, motherhood, divorce, the music industry and more. Born into music royalty,
the daughter of folk legends Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III and
sister to the highly-acclaimed singer Rufus Wainwright, Martha grew up in a world filled with such incomparable folk legends as Leonard Cohen, Anna McGarrigle, Richard and Linda Thompson, Pete Townsend and Emmylou Harris. It was within this loud, boisterous, musical milieu that Martha came of age, struggling to find her voice until she exploded onto the music scene with her 2005 debut and critically acclaimed album,
Martha Wainwright, which contained the blistering hit, ‘Bloody Mother F*cking Asshole’, which the
Sunday Times called one of the best songs of that year. Her successful debut album and the ones that followed such as
Trade Review'
First class family drama…
Tales of rivalry, love, drugs and difficult births litter the singer-songwriters gripping account of life in a dysfunctional music dynasty… very little feels off-limits in this slim but
jam-packed book, full of very good times in the circus that is a performer’s life as well as very bad times... This is a memoir full of talented, headstrong people recycling their pain as songcraft; of ambitions pursued or curtailed, and of love frequently tinged with other things – rivalry, frustration, not measuring up. For all the epigenetic baggage, though, it is
above all the story of Wainwright’s gutsy, instinctual pursuit of her own muse.' * Observer *
'
A hilariously candid memoir … the revered singer-songwriter’s autobiography shows her to be
one of a kind…
Acerbic, often hilarious and more candid that it should be… her transparency is the book’s golden ticket… In short, she has had
a life worth documenting. At the end of
244 remarkable pages, she signs off with a typical self-effacing line: “Perhaps I am someone whose luck gets better halfway though. That would be good.” It would be good, and she would deserve it.' * Guardian *
'
Witty and honest… Like her music, Wainwright’s searingly honest and entirely charming memoir, aptly titled
Stories I Might Regret Telling You, dissects these familial bonds and her bohemian childhood… Wainwright, a mother of two,
writes movingly about relationships, divorce, the termination of pregnancy and the trials, tribulations and rewards of having children.' * Press Association *
‘With disarming
candour and
courage, Martha tells us of finding her own voice and peace as a working artist and mother. Her story is made more
unique because of the
remarkably gifted musical family she was born into.’ -- Emmylou Harris
'It’s like reading extremely private diary entries through your laced fingers. From page one, chapter one,
Wainwright pulls no punches (her father, singer Loudon Wainwright III, informed his daughter when she was a teenager that “he didn’t want me at first and pressured my mother to have an abortion”). It continues with
equal measures of directness and poignancy … . Neither the industry in which she works nor her family gets off lightly, and that includes Wainwright herself, who is to
candid self-reflection as a moth is to a flame. The family ties, however, are
the most vicariously gratifying to read … Confessional and contemplative to the nth degree,
you won’t regret reading it, either.' * Irish Times *
‘I have been listening to Martha Wainwright for at least twenty years, admiring her from afar. Her new memoir,
Stories I Might Regret Telling You, made me feel like I was sitting in a corner of one of her New York apartments, reading her private diaries under a blanket with a flashlight . . .
I was sucked in from the first page, though occasionally I winced because it was
all so relatable . . .
I turned the last page and felt like I had made a new friend, the kind you wish you were cool enough to have but never had the courage to pursue. My only disappointment? Her memoir wasn’t long enough.
I can’t wait for volume two.’ -- Jann Arden, singer, songwriter, TV star and bestselling author
‘
What a wonderful gift this book is! Martha Wainwright has opened the door to let us into the
fabled, glamorous family that is the McGarrigle-Wainwrights and reveals what it is like to be the black sheep of the bunch, the earnest, glorious underachiever who has always been the most loveable of them all. Her
warm, rich writing displays the sweetness her songwriting possesses and, at the same time, is
filled with the humor, panache and gutsy feminism of her live performances. Wainwright shows us how a big, dysfunctional brood can also be a blessing,
filled with gifts that make the heart grow bigger.
A surprising and brilliantly relatable book.’ -- Heather O'Neill, bestselling author of The Lonely Hearts Hotel
‘
A beautiful and clear-eyed memoir, full of music, friendship, love, and heartache. Somehow at once
sizzling and wise, as undeniable as the singer who wrote it.’ -- Sean Michaels, Scotiabank Giller Prize–winning novelist and founder of Said the Gramophone
