Books for womb twin survivors: " Womb Twin Survivors - the lost twin in the Dream of the Womb"

The largest and most difficult of the womb twin books has now been written. I never thought it would happen. It took eight years, 500 completed questionnaires and many thousands of emails to hundred of womb twin survivors around the world.

I tried to write a book about womb twin survivors in 2003. I wanted to call it "Ending the cycle of self sabotage" and finished it in 12 chapters. With the help of Amanda Seyderhelm as literary agent, I submitted it to various publishers. The response was interesting:

This is fascinating, but how would anyone know they were a womb twin survivor?

A good question, to which I had to find the answer if I was ever to get this into print.


 So I gave up trying to write a book and concentrated on the research instead.  Five years later, by the end of 2008, I knew I had all the information I needed.  I would have enough questionnaires to have some kind of a result, if I could find someone to analyse them for me.  I came across the Statistics Department of the local university, the University of Hertfordshire,  and they required a fee, so in May 2009 I did a sponsored walk  of £25 and raised enough money to compete the analysis. By September the report lay in my hand. I was ready to go.

But I had not tried to write a book of this magnitude before and I was unsure about how it would sound or be received. Therefore I asked a few trusted friends to mentor this book for me, chapter by chapter. Of the whole group, only Andrew stuck with me till the end. It was a wonderful support and I do not know how I would have done it without his support. 

Over 100 womb twin survivors had agreed to have their story quoted in the book. This illuminated what may have been a rather dry read.  I was very grateful for this and I know the book is better for it.

In the end I had 30 chapters, 300 references and 70 illustrations. And a beautiful cover illustration by Ros Powell who is a therapist and talented artist.

The illustrations were intersting- I could not afford to pay an artist, so it was Powerpoint, Indesign and a little handiwork of my own that produced illustrations like this:

Its amazing what you can do with modern technology!

36 people made an advance order, and by March 3rd or so it was available. It is selling steadily. It is an excellent start to what I hope one day will be an extensive literature about womb twin survivors , and not all of it written by me!