Editions

Page /
100%
  1. Home
  2. Non-Fiction Books
  3. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

  • Imprint: Vintage

  • ISBN: 9780099556091

  • Length: 240  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 15mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 170g

  • RRP: £9.99

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

The shocking, heart-breaking - and often very funny - true story behind Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.

In 1985 Jeanette Winterson's first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, was published. It was Jeanette's version of the story of a terraced house in Accrington, an adopted child, and the thwarted giantess Mrs Winterson. It was a cover story, a painful past written over and repainted. It was a story of survival.

This book is that story's the silent twin. It is full of hurt and humour and a fierce love of life. It is about the pursuit of happiness, about lessons in love, the search for a mother and a journey into madness and out again. It is generous, honest and true.

‘Unforgettable… It’s the best book I have ever read about the cost of growing up’ Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times

**ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY**

  • Imprint: Vintage

  • ISBN: 9780099556091

  • Length: 240  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 15mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 170g

  • RRP: £9.99

Reviews

  • Unforgettable… It’s the best book I have ever read about the cost of growing up.

    Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times

  • A searingly felt and expressed autobiography…Funny and profoundly hopeful – a tale of survival

    Kate Hamer, Metro

  • This book is good, sensible, beautiful company… Try this

    A.L. Kennedy, Week

  • Jeanette Winterson’s writing is poetic, emotive and beautiful

    So Many Books So Little Time (blog)

  • Incredibly moving and full of Winterson’s characteristic wit.

    Elle

More from this Author

View all View all
View all View all

About the Author

Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson OBE was born in Manchester in 1959. She is the author of over twenty books of fiction and non-fiction, including Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Tanglewreck, Art Objects and The Stone Gods. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit won her the Whitbread Award for Best First Novel, and Winterson adapted the novel for television in 1990. She has also been the recipient of the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, the E.M. Forster Award and two Lambda Literary Awards, which are given to works that explore LGBTQ issues. She is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Manchester.

Jeanette Winterson

Read more

/content/dam/prh/articles/adults/2021/october/halloween-scale-main-image-1800x1200.jpg

Features

Books to read for Halloween: from the slightly scary to full-on nightmarish

Fancy reading something scary this year, but not sure which level of spook to go for? Here are the best ghoulish reads, ranked in order of thrill.
/content/dam/prh/articles/adults/2021/july/Where to start - Jeanette Winterson -main-image-1800x1200.jpg

Recommendations

Where to start reading Jeanette Winterson's books

From nature and literature to sexuality, Jeanette Winterson has long tackled matters of substance in her work. Here's how to get into it.
/content/dam/prh/articles/adults/2019/january/vintage-in-article-Image-VINTAGEWOMEN.jpg

Features

Read women in 2019: VINTAGE classic and new female authors

Join us at VINTAGE in a year of challenging ourselves to listen, hear and respond to some of the greatest female writers history has to offer. From Margaret Atwood to Mary Wollstonecraft, revisit your favourites, discover new voices and fill your bookshelf and your year with women’s voices. They matter.

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies to make our website work. If you click 'Accept All’ we will use cookies to understand how you use our services and to show you personalised advertising and other content. You can change your cookie settings by clicking 'Manage Cookies'. For more information please see our Cookie Policy

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience.

For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions. See More.

Analytics

Analytics cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. See More.

Preferences & Features

Preference and Feature cookies allow our website to remember choices you make, such as your language preferences and any customisations you make to pages on our website during your visit. See More.

Targeting / Advertising

Targeting cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They perform functions like preventing the same content from reappearing, ensuring ads are displayed and, in some cases, selecting content based on your interests. See More.