Summary: a poetry of courage

“Silence – like a Quaker meeting.”

And like a Quaker meeting, Samantha Whittaker breaks this silence with her deeply considered words. Standing Tall is her first book, a collection of her poetry. As she explains in the introduction poetry is something that she returned to writing after her diagnosis with motor neurone disease. “At 56 I was struck with this terrible disease… Nobody can understand me now… I used to chat and laugh so much… Standing tall is where you’ll find me/ When I die.”

Because of its subject matter, this is a desperately sad book. But it is also an awe-inspiring one. I have only been in the presence of true courage a couple of times in my life. This book reminded me of those times. Because in this book Whittaker unflinchingly confronts her disease and her life with it: “Reason, slobber, alive, decline/ Words that sum up…”

Standing Tall is an extraordinary book by an extraordinary woman.