PRESS INVITATION:
A Girl Behind Dark Glasses Launch Party
Saturday 8thSeptember, 4-6pm, WH Smith, Week Street, Maidstone, Kent.
Press RSVP to:https://agirlbehinddarkglasseslaunch.eventbrite.co.uk
To arrange an interview/photographer at the event or - if you're unable to make it to Kent on the 8th September, we would love to arrange an interview at a different time to suit you and your location - please get in touch:helenlewis@literallypr.com.
The author will be signing books and meeting customers in store between 2:30pm and 3:30pm on Saturday 8thSeptember ahead of the invite-only party. Please note the party (4-6pm) is guest-list only so we require an RSVP to secure your place.
This is an incredible opportunity to meet Kent author Jessica Taylor-Bearman - the star of Oscar-finalist film UNREST (currently on Netflix). Her first book, A Girl Behind Dark Glasses (Hashtag Press, £12.99), sold out in the first week of release and has been in and out of the top 1-10 position on Amazon since it launched in July 2018. Jessica continues to battle ME and is an important voice in the ongoing debate in Parliament, the healthcare sector, and media, on a global scale. She was a spokesperson at the #MillionsMissing global protest earlier this year and her book offers a "traumatic, raw insight into the terrifying world of chronic illness, as well as the treatment of young people institutionalised due to a lack of understanding about ME".
What is A Girl Behind Dark Glasses?
Jessica Taylor-Bearman shares her inner-most thoughts and real-time emotions - adapted from her diary growing up as a teenager in South-East England - detailing the terrifying discovery that, aged 15, instead of partying, studying and socialising, she would rapidly become bed-ridden, ultimately unable to move, speak, eat...
Despite the odds, Jessica never gave up. Her dream was to become an author, to be able to marry, leave the hospital, and help others through the creation of her own charity. In July 2018, her first book, A Girl Behind Dark Glasses, was published by Hashtag Press. Jessica has been a Pride of Britain nominee, her charity Share A Star touches lives every day, and she is the star of the Oscar-finalist, Sundance award-winning film UNREST by Jennifer Brea, a journalist and filmmaker from New York, who aims to raise awareness about Myalgic Encephalomyletis (M.E.).
More about the incredible author...
Jessica Taylor-Bearman was born in March 1991, at Maidstone Hospital in England. She grew up in Rochester and Canterbury, Kent, where she attended Rochester Grammar School for Girls. At the age of 15, she became acutely unwell with an illness called M.E. She was continuously hospitalised from 2006 to 2010, suffering with the most severe form of the condition. This included her being bedridden, unable to move, speak, eat and more. She began to write in her mind, and when finally able to speak again, she began to write through her audio diary 'Bug'. In 2009, Jessica began to teach herself to paint through the movement of laughter. She realised that through balancing a paintbrush in her hand, laughter caused it to move, creating a new form of art that she called a 'Laugh-O-Gram'. Her first collection was exhibited in the Canterbury Art Festival 2009. All her pieces have been exhibited since then. In 2010, whilst still in hospital, she founded a charity called Share a Star, to help seriously unwell youngsters. It is now a registered charity that she continues to run. Since she left hospital, Jessica's journey with severe M.E. has continued to be very challenging. She is currently still mostly bedridden, twelve years after it began. She writes a blog called The World of One Room and made a YouTube video of the same name that has reached tens of thousands of people in multiple countries. In 2017 she married her soulmate Samuel and walked down the aisle. They live together in Kent.
ESSENTIAL DETAILS
Title:A Girl Behind Dark Glasses
Author:Jessica Taylor-Bearman
Genre:Memoir, Health
Publisher:Hashtag Press
Publication date:July 2018
Availability:Paperback/eBook
ISBN: 978-1-9998053-5-7
Price: £12.99
Twitter:https://twitter.com/jayletayhttps://twitter.com/DarkGlassesBook
Website:http://www.jaytay.co.uk
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/AGirlBehindDarkGlasses/
Press folder:http://bit.ly/2jFnpqC
Online profile:http://www.literallypr.com/public_relations/file/Jessica-Taylor-Bearman.php
What is M.E?
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis is a systemic neuroimmune condition characterised by post-exertional malaise (a severe worsening of symptoms after even minimal exertion). It causes dysregulation of both the immune system and the nervous system. The effects of M.E. are devastating enough to leave 25% of patients housebound or bedbound. For moderate to severe patients, living with M.E. is like living with late-stage cancer, advanced stage AIDS, or congestive heart failure for decades. In many parts of the world, it is commonly called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
For more information, extracts, editorial opportunities, interview requests or review copies please get in touch withHelenLewis@LiterallyPR.com+44 (0) 7904801669
--ENDS--