No woman should be so defined by her relationship with a man that four years later, she still can't bear to think of him. In it, she records the daily simple acts of mothering her four girls, The Mermaid, The Whirlwind, The Caulbearer and The Littlest One, fierce and wild, against a backdrop of lockdowns and loneliness.

Beautifully describes the shame, vulnerability and then strength that comes from becoming a single parent. She evokes the lives of her 4 amazing daughters, The Mermaid, The Whirlwind, The Caulbearer and The Littlest One with honesty, compassion and clarity. I know life isn’t always happy resolutions from personal troubles, but I still wanted that from this kind of book. Giles also struggles with the latter and her writing is honest, sad and funny as what must be an exhausting and draining life is explored. The chapters lead us through the year’s moons and their phases, which unites things cleverly - an unexpectedly grounding device.I enjoyed some of the repetitive bits, like letting the cat in and out because it felt like the chance to get quite familiar with her and her daily life. I shared this book with a good friend, a mum like me whose everyday mothering strays from the conventional. Written with intelligence - a blend of lightness, elegance, and even the elegiac, Twelve Moons immerses you in the Northumbrian landscape, with excursions to other quiet places. TWELVE MOONS follows a year spent caught between the wild sea and the changing moon of the wide Northumberland skies.

I told her that reading memoirs like this make me feel less alone, in sisterhood with others who tread the wild pathways too.Throughout the quiet turn of each month she charts the sea swimming, rock pool immersing, hill running to calm her busy brain, and of nature weaving it’s magic, grounding, nurturing and holding the whole family safe as she reclaims herself from the sadness and scars left by shattered hopes; rediscovering and unearthing the woman concealed by motherhood. Each word is chosen with care to vividly portray the landscapes, and to express the varying emotions experienced by the author. An exquisitely and bravely written memoir following the lives of a single mother and her four beautiful daughters, during a year of the pandemic.

This is a debut memoir that will particularly resonate with anyone who has had their life smashed apart and needed to dig deep, just to keep going.Unfortunately the more personal side of the book fell really flat on me and I just felt really sad that the person spent their life escaping from perceived pressure, anxiety and mental strain. The challenges of bringing up a young family in isolated Northumberland are laid bare with brutal and heart-rending honesty. I also enjoyed the references to the lunar cycles which were interwoven throughout the narrative, and provided structure.

It is here they can be truly themselves; the book felt just as much a love letter to the natural landscape as it did to her daughters. The main elements that stood out to me were Giles' expert capturing of the wild magic of Northumberland, the cosy domesticity of her everyday life, and the deep love she has for her daughters. Would highly recommend reading over the course of a year, which I had done so up until a holiday in Northumberland which felt the right setting to finish the book.

Caro’s world revolves around caring for her eldest, who is autistic and recovering from an illness which has temporarily robbed her of the use of her legs. The cycle of the same routines we all go through, even when big things change, we still carry on doing the same daily things with the same people. Caro Giles lives on the far edge of the country, with her tribe of daughters: The Mermaid, The Whirlwind, The Caulbearer and The Littlest One. They are beautifully drawn and highlight the necessity of place in allowing fullness of life to take place whilst providing restoration for all the protagonists.