Carrie holds nothing back and takes us step by step on her journey through elements I would never even think of. It's the story of how a tattooed transgender rock singer killed a depressed suburban dad, and of the lessons you learn when you renounce all your privilege and power. By the end I felt such joy and pride for Carrie (though I don’t know her, her words paint her life so vividly) tinged with such anger, frustration and sadness about the hostility trans people face in the world but especially the UK.

Carrie also weaves facts and figures about trans life into her words in such a way that it feels relevant and tied into the story.

For my kids and their peers, whether you’re gay or trans or non-binary is probably the least interesting thing about you. In a world where trans people are being demonised and othered it’s important that memoirs like Carries exists. When more people think they’ve seen a ghost than met a trans person, it’s easy for bad actors to exploit that – and they do, as you can see from the headlines and online. Throughout the book, Carrie discusses and highlights the non-linear process of transition and how what we feel and allow ourselves to feel is shaped by our environment and the information we have.

I read the book because she was appearing at Paisley Book Festival with Kirkland Ciccone, whose books I love, and I had mistakenly thought this was a work of fiction. She has written, ghost-written or co-written more than a dozen non-fi ction books, a radio documentary series, and more. carrieplaysguitar takes us on her journey to self acceptance, to freeing herself and letting the world see her for her fabulous self! You’ve written a number of books before in differing forms – how did you find writing your own story?

I winced at my own failures and ignorance, I laughed at the darkest of dark humour, I shed tears of sadness and frustration for what Carrie and her community, which by now should just be "our community" have suffered and still suffer so crass, clueless conniving people can use fear to sell advertising or get into power, without a shed of shame or accountability for the consequences to our LGBTQ+ friends and family! Honest funny celebrates the joy and euphoria of being yourself as well as highlighting the the impact and ugly underbelly of prejudice. At her best when she is sharp, scathing of the system, of the people of the energy or joyous, big emotions are what Carrie does best in this novel but often cuts off as it is getting good. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. This book is an act of love and defiance against all the noise and bigotry clouding stories centred in power, love and truth.

It also highlights the difficulties in every aspect of her life that Carrie has encountered along the way - from casual misgendering, to deliberate and outright aggression. It's a sometimes sad, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, true account of Carrie's decision to become a woman in her 40s, in Glasgow, and how she did so. It’s the story of how a tattooed transgender rock singer killed a depressed suburban dad, and of the lessons you learn when you renounce all your privilege and power. It’s also about the power of music and of friendship, the joy of being your best self and what it’s like to go out looking like the sole survivor of a terrible accident in a clown factory.We know this isn’t the most user-friendly way to use our ebooks and we hope to find a better solution soon. And lastly, the song choices were fabulous and I have really enjoyed the playlist I got to listen to along the way. It's amazing to see how the impacts of social media and the Internet have changed so negatively too. This book is a must read for everyone but especially for all the facts, figures and waiting times about Trans healthcare. You will need to download your purchased ebook in the zipped folder to a desktop computer and extract the ebooks.