Considering the moon phases over the course of the year is something I had never consciously done before. 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. She evokes the lives of her 4 amazing daughters, The Mermaid, The Whirlwind, The Caulbearer and The Littlest One with honesty, compassion and clarity. In fact, the calm and chaos of their lives mirror the ebb and flow of the tides and the lunar cycle beautifully. Having to battle systems not adequately equipped with knowledge, finances and sometimes just basic empathy felt all too familiar.

I understand that the purpose of the book was for Giles to explore who she was in the wake of her separation. A newly single mom and her 4 daughters (including one with specific needs) navigate their small town lifestyle with lots of nature hikes, singing, occasional quarantines, and ocean swimming.Descriptions of the natural world permeate the novel, charting the ebbs and flows of the family’s life across a whole year. 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. Come down the travelators, exit Sainsbury's, turn right and follow the pedestrianised walkway to Crown Walk and turn right - and Coles will be right in front of you.

Over the course of the year, the moon becomes her fellow traveller through dark times, and companion through joyful ones – and even when the sky is wreathed in cloud, the moon is still felt in the pull of the tides.

It was funny to read the description of jesmond - I could tell exactly where she was, it's really fun when a book includes a place you know. I know life isn’t always happy resolutions from personal troubles, but I still wanted that from this kind of book. 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.

Very often home schooling can be one the very few options available to parents finding themselves in this situation and as Giles highlights for all its potential joys, it can be all consuming and immersive. A delicately-handled, lyrical exploration of divorce, recovery of self and fierce maternal devotion. Giles examines and processes how the course of her life’s events have led to her current situation: ‘how I have ended up on my own in the Northern most corner of England with four little girls, when I spent my childhood dreaming of bright lights and centre stage? The familiar certainty of its stages helped provide a certainty and reassurance in contrast to the unpredictability of life.Yet we see, she is gravity to the four girls in orbit around her, her own anxiety waxing and waning over the months, as the landscape around them and the turn of the seasons become her refuge. This memoir of Caro Giles is written in such a tone that you can't help but fall in love with her family, the moon and the landscapes of Northumberland.