Frighten the Horses

"I often think that the entire purpose of a human life is to see if we can somehow get FREE - if we can escape from the rules, expectations and limitations of our families and our cultures in order to live an entirely different existence than the one that was assigned to us at birth. Frighten the Horses is the inspiring true story of one man's extraordinary journey of escape from the wrong marriage, the wrong gender, the wrong life, in order to become who he was always meant to be. This book is as sharp as razors, but it also pulses with a passionate, desperate, human urgency for truth and liberation. I am deeply grateful to have read it, and my hope is that Oliver's story will free many others, as well -- Elizabeth Gilbert This book is consistently frank, vulnerable, perspicacious and insightful, covering an impressive variety of aspects of the transgender experience in intimate, lyrical language and dry, compassionate humour. The author's analysis of privilege is particularly refreshing, as is his description of transitioning as a parent. A stunning memoir about discovering one's identity late in life. * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) * Radclyffe's moving devotion to his children (""I didn't so much guide them as encourage them to guide themselves"") lends the resonant coming-out narrative additional weight. Bolstered by poetic prose and offhanded candor, this story of late-in-life self-acceptance deserves a wide audience * Publishers Weekly * Wise, generous and fierce, Frighten the Horses is about more than a change of gender; it's about the perilous process of accepting the self, in all its gnarly, glorious complexity. Oliver Radclyffe finds more than manhood on his inspiring journey; what he finds, in the end, is his humanity -- Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of SHE'S NOT THERE and co-author of MAD HONEY The finest literary telling of the experience of gender transition that I've ever read. It's a terrific, expansive story because the focus of this warm-hearted man always returns to his children. He's simply a wonderful parent, and that's what keeps the reader turning the pages -- Kate Bornstein, author of GENDER OUTLAW In this exquisite memoir of a trans-man, an upper middle-class Englishwoman gives up her country, her status, her wealth, her marriage, her new lesbian identity (and partner) in order to release and achieve her true male self. Oliver Radclyffe would be a major writer no matter what subject he embraced. That he has explored the mysteries of class, gender, nationality makes Frighten the Horses a heart-felt cant-free book of universal interest -- Edmund White, author of THE HUMBLE LOVER This easy-to-read, almost jocular memoir is a tribute to how much the trans trajectory has been transformed by the existence of queer bookstores, lesbian and transmasc books, LGBT centres and their accompanying support groups...This hopeful retelling of one life, from the post-transition perspective, makes transness a more viable possibility and documents this historical moment of opportunity and resource -- Sarah Schulman, author of LET THE RECORD SHOW Brimming with wry wit, radical candour and vulnerability, Frighten the Horses is a fearless exploration of the liberation that comes from unwinding the narratives that we don't choose but so often define us, and the beautiful new futures that exist on the horizon of our imaginations - if we are only willing to risk everything to open our eyes, and really, really look -- Thomas Page McBee, author of AMATEUR"