Blood Lines

Juliet Robertson received an unexpected blood cancer diagnosis at the end of 2020 which altered her life trajectory. Juliet began writing poetry in 2021 as a way of making sense of her illness, treatment and prognosis. She discovered that sharing her poetry was a gateway to necessary, but not easy, conversations with family and friends.Prior to this Juliet was an education consultant specialising in outdoor learning and play and the author of two popular books, Dirty Teaching and Messy Maths. In 2024 she was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Education from Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh in recognition of her pioneering work and significant contribution to education.

I think Juliet's book of poetry, musings, advice and intense thinking is inspirational to the right reader who wants a companion, comfort and also a dose of reality on the most difficult journey of all. Juliet is quite incredible.The varied styles of the poetry give a personalised and informal feel and are such a wonderful way to give an authentic voice to the writing. It's almost unbearably real. I get the impression that writing it has helped Juliet, and it may well help others too. The images are sharp, they fall across the reader's mind in a multitude of emotions and seem exactly what they are: feelings expressed in a high-level, articulate way that follow no pattern but Juliet's own. She writes as the day demands in her mind with charts, thought bubbles, data and a context for each poem. The section divisions really help the sense of a journey. It's fast, it's painful but it's beautiful in places too.Some people in their final days, or going through long treatment, will certainly benefit from reading something so honest but also very well written with hugely effective word use and image making.Thanks for the privilege of reading this.Bob Cox