Comments from the Judging Panel
Why this book is different
Documenting the damaging role of anxiety in our lives is hardly new, but Touched takes us inside the destabilising riot of a three-day panic attack with such insight, honesty and humour that the perspective we gain is revelatory and overwhelmingly hopeful.
Why we liked it
This book has a wonderful breadth of understanding—of the author’s own crazily complex family, of the wider issue of anxiety across society, and of her own voyage as a highly competent yet vulnerable being in a worryingly unhinged world.
Review Comments
'This little powerhouse of a memoir is at once raw and entirely relatable. With stark and humorous honesty, Kim takes us by the hand and allows us to step inside her mind… I devoured this book in one sitting and then sat for almost just as long again contemplating it."
— Theresa Smith, Theresa Smith Writes
"(Touched) interrogates the whole question of anxiety, what it is and where it comes from… it offers the opportunity to empathise and experience ‘compassionate understanding."
— Helen Eddy, Read Plus
"…a record of the author’s challenge with anxiety. So vulnerable, but also wise and powerful. I read this award-winning short in a single, near-breathless session, and days later it’s still having an impact on me. Extraordinary."
— Nigel Featherstone
