“Where can I find your disability section?”
This was the question that baffled Waterstones staff when asked by Dr Hannah Barham Brown.
It should’ve been a pretty straightforward answer. Hannah was looking for the part of the shop where non-fiction books about disability and by disabled authors were kept, but the question drew a blank.
This is because most bookshops don’t have a specific section for non-fiction disabled books. Where there are sections for non-fiction books on important areas of identity such as race, gender and LGBTQ+ studies, disability has been forgotten about again.
Hannah took to Twitter to share her frustrations and it resonated with much of the disabled community. After being told by one Waterstones staff member that if she could fill a shelf, he reckoned they’d have a good shot, she sourced a humongous list that could take up a whole bookcase.
And there is a huge raft of them to choose from, my favourites include Sitting Pretty by Rebekah Tausig, DisVisibility by Alice Wong, Poor Little Sick Girls by Ione Gamble, Different Not Less by Chloe Hayden, Crippled by Dr Frances Ryan, and Vagina Problems by Lara Parker.
There are also some incredible new and upcoming books by disabled voices, such as The Austism Friendly Cookbook by Lydia Wilkins, Driving Forwards by Sophie Morgan, So I’m Autistic by Sarah O’Brien, See me Rolling by Lottie Jackson, Stumbling Through Time and Space by Rosemary Richings, Some of us Just Fall by Polly Atkin, The View from Down Here by Lucy Webster, and Charli Clement’s debut.
And hopefully, in the coming years, my own memoir will also sit alongside them.
From my own experience, the book-writing world is a horrendously hard space to access as a disabled woman. We’re constantly told there isn’t a market for our books or fobbed off by agents and publishers who say they already have something similar - when often the only similarity is that we’re disabled women. Not having our own section feeds these problems.
“The response I’ve had to this campaign shows that the demand for these books is there, but they are harder to find when bookshops don’t stock them, or place them in an easy-to-find section as they do with similar topics,” Dr Hannah said.
“This small change could make a huge difference for writers, published and readers alike.”
At a time when so many disabled activists and advocates are creating amazing books about their lives and issues facing disabled people, we deserve a section of our own.
“Wonky” kids deserve to see themselves in books, in praise of Lisette Auton, Elle McNicoll, and the new class of disabled kids fiction writers.
Growing up I would get swept up in stories of regular girls having adventures - but as someone diagnosed with multiple conditions from the age of nine onwards, I very rarely saw myself in the pages I was pouring over.
That's why I’m so glad that there is a new wave of books written about disabled and neurodivergent kids, by authors with lived experience.
Fairytales reimagined by Cerrie Burnell in Wilder than Midnight, teens finding their feet at school (literally) by Rosie Jones in the Amazing Edie Eckhart series, amateur sleuths like the Rockstar Detectives by Adam Hills.
Fantastic creations such as Elle McNicolls A Kind of Spark, the story of autistic pre-teen Addie who sets about to get a memorial for her towns witch trials, which is set to see its TV debut this year.
Elle has also just announced that she will be writing a YA romance, which I cannot wait for. I’ve also got Elle’s newest book Like a Curse on my to-be-read pile.
Closer to home are the works of Lisette Auton, a fellow self-described “wonky person”, Lisette weaves beautiful narratives around disabled and neurodivergent kids that don’t centre on their differences but instead celebrate them.
Her debut novel The Secret of Haven Point was literally very close to home for me - Haven Point is based on the lighthouse and beach I regularly walk my dog on.
Her new book The Stickleback Catchers, which came out last week, is an absolutely beautiful story about loss, family, and friendship.
I have two favourite things about Lisette’s writing. The first is that the kids always use the language that best describes them, instead of medical diagnoses, this is something adults could learn from.
The second is that she uses north east dialect and words that I was always taught were wrong. I almost sobbed seeing the word neb in an actual book.
At the heart, the book is about accepting your circumstances and not letting your past stop you. What I loved most about is how the characters supported each other and openly poked fun at how ridiculous disabled life is, I sobbed and giggled throughout.
Or as The Stickleback catchers would say soggled.
Growing up I never saw myself in books and it was one of the reasons I struggled to accept my disabilities. But this new wave means I do now and hopefully disabled kids will grow up learning they’re fine just as they are.
