"Elizabeth Turner is remarkable. Rather than, very naturally, breaking under the grief and responsibility she was forced to carry, she decided to embrace life. Instead of sinking into despair, she chose joy, which is inspirational." John McCarthy 'An utterly courageous, soul-shaking, unflinchingly honest account of what the event did to the author: of her descent into the Valley of the Shadow and, finally, her emergence from it. Readers will seldom encounter a more moving, ultimately inspiring personal Odyssey than this one' Sunday Times 'One of the year's most moving books' Daily Express 'A heart-felt story ... of hope and optimism, healing and recovery' Belfast Telegraph 'Her inspirational journey left me knowing that light does exist at the end of a dark tunnel' Claire Nasir, GMTV 'At about 1.45pm I walked in to my office after lunch and saw on Sky News that a plane had hit the World Trade Centre. I couldn't take it in. I saw my TV screen, the image of the twin towers with smoke billowing out of one of them and the "breaking news" tag line. I tried to absorb what it was telling me. Quickly my logical mind jumped in and told me all the statistics, facts, figures, numbers and calculations that prove bad things are rare. I knew Simon was in the twin towers, but I reminded myself that I lived a normal life, I was pregnant and everything would be fine. We were about to have our first child and fathers don't die just before a baby is born' Extract, The Sunday Times 16/8 'Mummy, how did those men kill Daddy? It was the question Elizabeth Turner had been dreading since 9/11. She explains how she told her five-year-old son the truth' Second extract, The Sunday Times 23/8 'In the last 18 months or so, says Elizabeth, William has become increasingly interested in how his father died -- and this has brought her up against what she's always known would be her biggest challenge. "I've always felt this huge responsibility about how I'd tell William what happened to Simon, without burdening him with anger or fear," says Elizabeth. The impressive strategy she came up with -- without, she says, getting any professional advice -- was to agree to answer any question William posed, at any time he chose to pose it, and to give just the information he asked for, no more and no less. It's led to some strange situations. "I've had to sit down in a quiet corner with him at friends' weddings and other events. Another time we were driving down the North Circular after watching Ice Age 2 when he said, 'Can I ask you a question, Mummy?' I said yes, expecting something about woolly mammoths or melting ice caps, when he said, 'Who killed my daddy?' First interview, Guardian 29/8 'My son gave me life again after my 9/11 loss' News report, Sunday Telegraph 30/8 'Elizabeth Turner was seven months pregnant when the Twin Tower Terrorists killed her husband. Now she has written one of the year's most moving books about the child who has cured her grief' 2-page interview, Daily Express 5/9 'Elizabeth Turner was seven months pregnant when the Twin Tower Terrorists killed her husband. Now she has written one of the year's most moving books about the child who has cured her grief' 2-page interview, Daily Express 5/9 'Her grief threatened to overwhelm her -- until the day she looked into her baby son's beautiful brown eyes' 2-page piece by Elizabeth, Daily Mail 7/9 'My husband died on 9/11 but now I'm ready to love again' 'In the dark days after Simon's death, heavily pregnant Elizabeth, then just 33, contemplated suicide. "The worst part was waking up in the morning and remembering what had happened," She says..."I want to give hope to somebody who is now in the dark place I once was. I can't say I'm happy all the time -- William will kick off and I'll shout at him. However, there are incredibly happy things that happen in your life. And William has helped me hugely...All my doors were starting to crash down -- and then William was born and propped up the door and left a gap."' 2-page interview, Mirror 8/9 'My baby brought me back to life -- When her husband was killed on 9/11, Elizabeth Turner considered suicide. Now she has a reason to live' 2-page interview, Woman Magazine 14/11 '[Elizabeth] has now written 'The Blue Skies of Autumn' to give William a record later on of what happened. It's a heart-felt story which could be another misery memoir but is actually one of hope and optimism, healing and recovery' Belfast Telegraph 12/9 'It's been eight years since Elizabeth's life shattered into a million pieces. I recently met her and her son William, now eight; she said she'd thought she'd never recover after 9/11. Her story is of grief after losing Simon, but also of hope...Her inspirational journey left me knowing that light does exist at the end of a dark tunnel' Five starts, Hot Reads, Now Magazine 21/9 'She saw on television the collapse of the Twin Towers, and knew her husband was at a meeting on the top floor of one tower. She never saw him again. This is her utterly courageous, soul-shaking, unflinchingly honest account of what the event did to her: of her descent into the Valley of the Shadow and, finally, her emergence from it. Readers will seldom encounter a more moving, ultimately inspiring personal Odyssey than this one, which culminated in Turner's formation of Ulife, an organisation dedicated to helping people through traumatic change' Sunday Times Recommends 21/11/09
