Frighten the Horses

'Consistently frank, vulnerable, perspicacious and insightful... 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

'It's the voice that makes this memoir stand out. This is a writer who can capture any moment with a dazzling, insightful, at times musical phrase' Oprah Daily

'There's great power in Radclyffe's vulnerable and generous portrayal of his trans experience...readers will be grateful for it' Booklist

'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' 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

'Enjoyable to read and well-written...Radclyffe writes movingly about parenting and the emotional risks of every step he takes toward affirming his maleness...[A]s a testament to midlife transition - especially in a time when so much of the cultural conversation around gender rights focuses on young people - Radclyffe's memoir offers a valuable alternate narrative to the loss and pain that queer history has too often insisted on' New York Times