Century £12.99 pp244

Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy is a disorder in which parents or carers invent medical symptoms in dependents to gain attention for themselves. Its existence is not universally accepted, but only the most stubborn sceptic could resist the sheer horror of Gregory’s account, the first one to be written from the child’s perspective. A terrific writer, she keeps us aghast as the helpless girl is dragged from one specialist to another, enduring ever more invasive and damaging diagnostic procedures for nonexistent illnesses, from urinary blockages to heart disease. It is her mother who is believed rather than her — but she rarely objects because she comes to accept her parent’s image of her as a sickly, bizarre creature who cannot live long. It is an appalling, fascinating story, expertly told.

BEAUTY BEFORE COMFORT
by Allison Glock

Flamingo £12.99 pp191

This is the story of the author’s grandmother Aneita Jean Blair, an old lady of the sprightly, indomitable type. In her youth she had been a great flirt, and her conquests live on in her “memory book”, a photo album full of former boyfriends whose faded portraits Glock’s memoir now seeks to bring to life. The author’s evocation of pre-war West Virginia is absorbing, particularly when she explores the family pottery industry whose early success came with Ku Klux Klan plates featuring blazing crosses and galloping horsemen, before they went on to make delightful things such as single-olive serving dishes. But although we understand that Aneita Jean was an irresistible livewire, Glock’s bland characterisation means that we do not really feel it, and may derive the impression merely of a silly goose.

THE ECLIPSE: A Memoir of Suicide
by Antonella Gambotto

Broken Ankle Books £12.70
(only from www.brokenanklebooks.com) pp201

When they were both five, a blond boy with “rueful eyes” asked Gambotto to marry him; at 16, he blew his brains out. Later, her lover, Michael VerMeulen, the editor of GQ magazine, overdosed on cocaine. Then in 2001, her brother gassed himself in a car. He left an apologetic note to his unknown discoverers, reassuring them that the gas was not explosive and asking the police to return the rented empty tank to the shop. He thought of everything — yet his family and friends were left only with a terrible perplexity. Gambotto’s account is intense and moving, and she vividly captures her brother’s troubled character. The daffy new-age noodlings with which she ornaments the narrative can be ignored or relished, according to taste.

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