
My Mother, Munchausen's and Me
A True Story of Betrayal and a Shocking Family Secret
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Helen Naylor
-
By:
-
Helen Naylor
There was a time when I loved my mother. It’s shocking to imply that I stopped loving my mum because mothers always love their children and always do their best for them. Mothers are supposed to be good. But my mother wasn’t good.
Ten years ago, Helen Naylor discovered her mother, Elinor, had been faking debilitating illnesses for 30 years. After Elinor’s self-induced death, Helen found her diaries, which Elinor wrote daily for more than 50 years. The diaries reveal not only the inner workings of Elinor’s twisted mind and self-delusion, but also shocking revelations about Helen’s childhood.
Everything Helen knew about herself and her upbringing was founded on a lie. The unexplained accidents and days spent entirely on her own as a little girl, imagining herself climbing into the loft and disappearing into a different world, tell a story of neglect. As a teenager, her mother’s advice to Helen on her body and mental health speaks of dangerous manipulation.
With Elinor’s behavior becoming increasingly destructive, and Helen now herself a mother, she was left with a stark choice: to collude with Elinor’s lies or be accused of abandoning her.
My Mother, Munchausen’s and Me is a heartbreaking, honest, and brave account of a daughter unravelling the truth about her mother and herself. It’s a story of a stolen childhood, mental illness, and the redemptive power of breaking a complex and toxic bond.
©2021 Helen Naylor (P)2021 Thread, an imprint of Storyfire Ltd.Listeners also enjoyed...




















People who viewed this also viewed...


















Touching memoires
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An incredible account of a misunderstood disorder.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Alternate Reality and Impacts on Others
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I found it really interesting that Helen’s mom kept journals detailing each day in a couple of lines. When sections were read during the book you could feel the detachment from situations and the excitement if a medical professional gave her attention.
This book publishes November 25th. Thank you to the author, @netgalley and @bookouture for the advanced audio copy.
True story but reads like a thriller 😱
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I have heard quite a bit about Munchausen's by Proxy over the years, but not much about Munchausen's itself. In this memoir by Helen Naylor, we learn how her mother's decades of fake illnesses finally led to her death, and how this all had a devastating effect on Helen.
Elinor's illnesses were self-manufactured. But she kept diaries. Dozens and dozens of them over the course of fifty years. As Helen begins reading these diaries she learns so much about her mother, but even about herself as well.
Helen's life was tragic. Her mother was always ill in bed, leaving Helen to fend for herself for days at a time. This was when she was a young child. As a teenager, things became much worse for Helen. As an adult, Helen began reading these diaries and is more than determined never to ever become like her mother. She also learns what love is and how it is an unbreakable bond, even as she survived a tragic past.
I had this book review in audiobook format, and it was narrated by the author. Listening to this book had quite an impact on me. This was no easy book to read or listen to, especially because things were so tragic. Sometimes Helen read the journal entries in order, sometimes randomnly. In either case, they were more than disturbing. Now Helen herself is a mother, and she wants never to repeat her mother's mistakes. More than that, as a reader I often felt as if I were absorbing the same words that Helen was reading, and wondering what it would have been like to be in her shoes, especially when she was a child.
Many thanks to Thread and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
Excellent book!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Much of my own childhood was reflected in this.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Interesting but a little long…
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Boring
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Couldn’t Finish It - Depressing & Frustrating
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Disappointed
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.