The Daughterhood: The good, the bad and the guilty of mother-daughter relationships

Description

When Natasha Fennell's mother was diagnosed with a progressive illness, she wasn't ready to do deal with the inevitability of what this would bring. Sitting outside the hospital after visiting one day, Natasha wondered how she would cope when her mother was gone. There started a panic and self-scrutiny. Had she been a good enough daughter? Would she have enough time to do all the things she wanted to do with her mother before she died? Natasha knew that she couldn't be the only one feeling this way. She began her research and quickly learned that other daughters had similar fears and had never spoken about them before. Love for their mothers, regret for opportunities missed, resentments and emotional complexities all bubbled to the surface. Through these conversations, a friendship blossomed with Roisin Ingle, popular columnist at the Irish Times. After a call out in Roisin's column, hundreds of responses poured in and The Daughterhood was formed. The Daughterhood is the funny, poignant, and occasionally heart-breaking story of a group of daughters coming together to talk about their mothers and the joy and despair this relationship brings. Over a period of months they commit to completing various tasks in the hope of improving their relationship with the most important woman in their lives - before she dies.

Natasha grew up in Connemara, in the west of Ireland, and is a native Irish speaker. She's worked with Ireland's national broadcaster, RTE, and today runs a successful communications consultancy, Stillwater Communications, in Dublin. She is Ireland's leading confidence expert and firmly believes that confidence is at the heart of everything. Roisin is Daily Features Editor and Broadcaster at The Irish Times. She also writes a popular column in the paper's Magazine every Saturday. She lives in Dublin with her partner and six-year-old twin girls.