An unprecedented exploration of menopause from the author of the cult classic, Suicide Blonde

Menopause hit Darcey Steinke hard. First came hot flushes. Then insomnia. Then depression. As she struggled to understand what was happening to her, she slammed up against a culture of silence and sexism. Some promoted hormone replacement therapy, others encouraged acceptance, but there was little that offered a path to understanding menopause in an engaged way.

Flash Count Diary is a powerful exploration into aspects of menopause that have rarely been written about. It is a deeply feminist book, honest about the intimations of mortality that menopause signals but also an argument for the ascendency, beauty and power of the post-reproductive years in women's lives.

I hope that Steinke's book, which I consumed hungrily, will encourage a wave of work by and about women undergoing what is, quite literally, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Steinke makes the case that the inexorable slide away from fertility is a rebirth of agency, and her book is the fruit of the very creativity it describes