Actress, check. Wife, check. Mother, check. In control of her own mind? Well…

After a lifetime of getting everything ‘right’ – marrying her childhood sweetheart, starring in hits from Fresh Meat and Cranford to Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, having a much-longed-for baby – Kimberley Nixon’s brain broke. Or, more specifically, OCD won.

‘‘From the outside, I was coping. Inside, my brain was on fire.’

She Seems Fine to Me: Behind the Scenes of Birth, Babies and My Broken Brain is not a tidy recovery story. In her jaw-droppingly honest and darkly funny memoir, Kimberley shares what it’s like to become a mother while losing your sense of self, loving your child ferociously while being terrified of your own mind and the brutal gap between the rose-tinted version of motherhood we are sold and the more complicated reality.

At once devastating and tender, Kim’s story will resonate with anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed by motherhood, failed by the system or frightened by thoughts they were too ashamed to say out loud. It’s for anyone who has ever been told they looked fine when they were anything but.

We’re incredibly excited to welcome BAFTA-award-winning Welsh actress Kimberley Nixon to Penarth to talk about motherhood, mental health and her inspiring new memoir, She Seems Fine To Me.

***
Saturday 20 June | 4.30 pm
Belle Vue Pavilion, Belle Vue Park, Albert Crescent, Penarth CF64 1DA
Tickets: £25.00 Event Ticket with a signed copy of She Seems Fine to Me (RRP: £20.00) / £10.00 – Event Only / £5.00 – Inclusive Ticket / £5.00 – Student Ticket

Buy a Festival Weekend Pass and get free entry to all festival events, plus some brilliant bookish perks.

The Penarth Literary Festival is organised by Griffin Books and runs from Friday 19 – Sunday 21 June. The festival coincides with Independent Bookshop Week and includes a packed programme of author events, workshops, and lots of other bookish fun for all ages and interests.