I Swear : My Life with Tourette’s
30 In Stock
9781529961850
From the remarkable man whose life inspired the heartstopping film, ‘I Swear’, a book that offers extraordinary insight into what it’s like to live with a severe form of Tourette’s Syndrome: a fascinating, complex condition that’s more common than most of us think (1 in 100 schoolchildren have the condition) , and yet is chronically misunderstood. Born in the 1970s on the Scottish Borders, John’s was ten when his tics first arrived, as if from nowhere.
Previously a happy, popular, football-mad boy he was labelled disruptive, rude, and even mad. As his condition progressed, from blinks and jerks to involuntary rude and obscene shouting, John was bullied, rejected - alienated from his family and a society that had no idea what to make of him. Hospitalized and drugged for months, it was only an extraordinary and transformative friendship, and John’s dogged optimism, that turned his life around, making I Swear an inspirational story of triumph over adversity.
Through John’s eyes, we see Tourette’s not just as a medical condition, but as a lens through which we can all better understand the importance of human connection. And how essential, as well as ultimately rewarding, it can be to keep going and never give up.
Books and gifts - £4 post and packing per order, UK addresses.
-£25.00 post and packing per order, Overseas addresses.
Art and craft - post and packing individually priced.
Wigtown Voucher -£1.35 for letter UK addresses.
Orders will be shipped by second class postage. Please allow 3 - 5 days for your order to be processed.
CLICK AND COLLECT - we aim to have your order ready for collection within 3 working days, but will email you to let you know when it is available to save you having a wasted journey.
Collection from:
Wigtown Festival Company
11 North Main Street
Wigtown
DG8 9HN
Related Products
From this Collection
-
Seven Kinds of People You Find in BookshopsIn twenty years behind the till in The Books...
In twenty years behind the till in The Bookshop, Wigtown, Shaun Bythell has met pretty much every kind of customer there is - from the charming, erudite and deep-pocketed to the eccentric, flatu...
-
Devorgilla DaysThis is a story about uncovering the things ...
This is a story about uncovering the things that really matter, and discovering what makes us feel alive. It is a story about finding that inner strength and resilience, and never giving up hope...
-
Love, Freddie**Pre-order - published: 5 Sep 2025...
**Pre-order - published: 5 Sep 2025**
Few people knew that Freddie Mercury kept a diary. When he died in 1991, he left behind seventeen handwritten notebooks chron...
-
Victoria's Secret : The Private Passion of a QueenMine is a nature which
Mine is a nature which requires being loved, and I have lost almost all those who loved me most on earth.
From the moment John...
I Brought the War with Me : Stories and Poems from the Front LineI was standing outside an apartment block th...
I was standing outside an apartment block that had been split apart by a missile. The words of a poem came to me when I could no longer find my own. In nearly four decades as a journalist coveri...
The Diary of a BooksellerShaun Bythell owns The Bookshop, Wigtown - S...
Shaun Bythell owns The Bookshop, Wigtown - Scotland's largest second-hand bookshop. It contains 100,000 books, spread over a mile of shelving, with twisting corridors and roaring fires, and all ...
Confessions of a BooksellerShaun Bythell is the owner of The Bookshop i...
Shaun Bythell is the owner of The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland. With more than a mile of shelving, real log fires in the shop and the sea lapping nearby, the shop should be an idyll for bookwor...
Walking Back Home'For all these years I've told stories. Sometimes these days I also tell them on the radio. I've met some amazing people and their stories need tol...
Signed copy of The Making of the Modern Middle East : A Personal HistoryJeremy Bowen, the International Editor of th...
Jeremy Bowen, the International Editor of the BBC, has been covering the Middle East since 1989 and is uniquely placed to explain its complex past and its troubled present. Here, Bowen offers yo...
The Royal Butler**Pre-order - Published: 28 Aug 2025...
**Pre-order - Published: 28 Aug 2025**
Discover the revelatory royal autobiography of the year, with stories featuring Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles III and many ...
Unschooled**Pre-order - Published: 2 Sep 2025*...
**Pre-order - Published: 2 Sep 2025**
It’s not by choice that Caro Giles is educating her daughters at home. Like so many families with children who don’t fit into mains...
In Green : Two Horses, Two Strangers, a Journey to the End of the LandIn his mid-twenties, city-bound and restless...
In his mid-twenties, city-bound and restless, Louis D. Hall found himself uncertain.
How to create a life he wanted to lead? Inspired by Don Quixote, he decided to fulfil a childhood drea...
Storm’s EdgeLonglisted for the 2024 Highland Book Prize ...
Longlisted for the 2024 Highland Book Prize From Peter Marshall, winner of the 2018 Wolfson Prize, Storm’s Edge is a new history of the Orkney Islands that delves deep into island politics, folk...
Undefeatable'This is the account we've been starved of: ...
'This is the account we've been starved of: an insight into Ukraine from an authoritative British writer who has skin in the country’s game. ‘Odesa is my discovered heart,’ confesses Julian Evan...
Not That I'm BitterWhat was it like as one of a handful of wome...
What was it like as one of a handful of women at the heart of the right-on alternative comedy scene in the 1980s? Piece of cake? Bit of a laugh? Well, yes, and no. It had its ups - but also its ...
In Search of BeethovenIn Search of Beethoven is John Suchet’...
In Search of Beethoven is John Suchet’s latest and most personal book dedicated to the life of this extraordinary composer. Part biography, part memoir, part travelogue, Suchet draws on hi...
Around the World in 80 FightsAn autobiographical white-knuckle ride...
An autobiographical white-knuckle ride around the global fight game by the legendary Steve Bunce: the voice of the sport who is celebrating four decades of writing and talking about boxers...
Women Don't Owe You PrettyWomen Don't Owe You Pretty is the ulti...
Women Don't Owe You Pretty is the ultimate book for anyone who wants to challenge the out-dated narratives supplied to us by the patriarchy. Through Florence's story you will learn how to ...
Orwell : The New LifeOver seventy years since his premature death...
Over seventy years since his premature death, George Orwell (1903-50) has become one of the most significant figures in western literature. His two dystopian masterpieces, Animal Farm (1945) and...
Cloistered : My Years as a NunDiscover Catherine Coldstream’s evocative ac...
Discover Catherine Coldstream’s evocative account of life as a nun in the 1990s, and the dramatic events which led to her flight from the monastery. A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK
My Family : The MemoirA searingly honest, funny and moving family ...
A searingly honest, funny and moving family memoir in which David Baddiel exposes his mother’s idiosyncratic sex life, and his father’s dementia, to the same affectionate scrutiny. On the surfac...
The Quality of Love : Twin Sisters at the Heart of the CenturyWhen her mother Celia Paget died, Ariane Ban...
When her mother Celia Paget died, Ariane Bankes inherited a battered trunk stuffed with letters and diaries belonging to Celia and her twin Mamaine. This correspondence charted the remarkable li...
One Love, One Life : Stories from the StarsWHEN legendary music journalist Billy Sloan ...
WHEN legendary music journalist Billy Sloan was fifteen years old he saw The Who play an incendiary live show at Green's Playhouse in Glasgow. It was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with...
The Stonemason : A History of Building BritainA stonemason's story of the building of Brit...
A stonemason's story of the building of Britain: part archaeological history, part deeply personal insight into an ancient craft. In his thirty-year career, stonemason Andrew Ziminski has worked...
The Life and Lies of Charles DickensThink you already know the story of Charles ...
Think you already know the story of Charles Dickens' life? Think again. Almost everything you're familiar with was first mentioned in an authorised biography written by Dickens' close friend Joh...
Harold WilsonHarold Wilson was one of the most succ...
Harold Wilson was one of the most successful politicians of the twentieth century. Prime Minister from 1964-70, and again from 1974-76, he won four elections as well as a referendum on UK ...
Catland : Feline Enchantment and the Making of the Modern WorldSome called it a craze. To others it was a c...
Some called it a craze. To others it was a cult. Join prize-winning historian Kathryn Hughes to discover how Britain fell in love with cats and ushered in a new era.
‘He invented a whole ...
10 Scotland Street10 Scotland Street – the story of an Edinbur...
10 Scotland Street – the story of an Edinburgh home and its cast of booksellers, silk merchants, sailors, preachers, politicians, cholera and coincidence and its widespread connections over two ...
Hildasay to HomeThe No. 1 Sunday Times Bestseller.
Wa...
The No. 1 Sunday Times Bestseller.
Walking saved his life. Now it will help find him a family.
In the follow-up to his Sunday Times bestselling Finding Hildasay, Christian Lewis ta...
My Life in SportThis is the autobiography of Dougie Donnelly...
This is the autobiography of Dougie Donnelly, one of Scotland’s most successful and best loved broadcasters, who has spent over 32 years with the BBC as a presenter on Grandstand and Sportscene....
The woman who saved the birdsRead the fascinating story of one of the gre...
Read the fascinating story of one of the greatest unsung figures of the nature conservation movement, founder of the RSPB and icon of early animal rights activism, Etta Lemon. A heroine for our ...
Victory & Barry’s Kelvinside Compendium‘Hold on to your chapeaux, because this stor...
‘Hold on to your chapeaux, because this story is a beezer! It’s a stoatir, so it is!’
Victor and Barry are the epitome of the expression ‘big in the 80s’. Annoyingly, they were also a lit...
Born on a Blue Day'I was born on 31 January 1979 - a Wednesday...
'I was born on 31 January 1979 - a Wednesday. I know it was a Wednesday, because the date is blue in my mind and Wednesdays are always blue, like the number nine or the sound of loud voices argu...
Nine MindsJapanese researcher in psychology sets out t...
Japanese researcher in psychology sets out to measure loneliness while drawing on her own experience of autism. A quirky boy growing up in 1950s Ottawa sows the seeds of his future Hollywood sta...
My Sins go with meIn the darkest days of the Nazi occupation o...
In the darkest days of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Anna-Maria van der Vaart sheltered Allied pilots, gave refuge to persecuted Jews and participated in audacious acts of sabotage. Sh...
Fully AliveWhat does it mean to live a good, whole and ...
What does it mean to live a good, whole and fulfilling life? And if the world really is ending, or at least expecting turbulent change, what kind of people will we need when it happens?In FULLY ...
Slum BoyJohn MacDonald must find his mother.
...
John MacDonald must find his mother.
Born into the slums of Glasgow in the late '70s, a 4-year-old John's life is filled with the debris of alcoholism and poverty. Soon after witnessing a...
The Woman That Won’t Shut UpJaney has been a determined fighter all her ...
Janey has been a determined fighter all her life - from her tough Glasgow childhood to becoming the much-loved comedian she is now. It was the strength she needed to survive as a sweary-mouthed ...
IngrainedIngrained is a love letter to trees, timber ...
Ingrained is a love letter to trees, timber and craftsmanship – and to finding your own voice.
The eldest son of a Master Woodworker, Callum Robinson spent his childhood surrounded by woo...
All Before Me : A Search for Belonging in Wordsworth’s Lake DistrictIn her early twenties, Esther Rutter suffere...
In her early twenties, Esther Rutter suffered an acute mental breakdown while teaching English in Japan. Sectioned and held in a Japanese psychiatric institution until she could be flown home un...
Joshua in the Sky**Pre-Order Published: 5 Sep 2024**
J...
**Pre-Order Published: 5 Sep 2024**
Joshua dies on his birthday. Joshua dies the day he is born. Joshua lives for three hours.
Joshua is alive. Rodge Glass's nephew Joshua died the...
Save Me from the Waves : An adventure from sea to summitJessica Hepburn is an unlikely athlete – she...
Jessica Hepburn is an unlikely athlete – she was labelled the ‘arty’ not the ‘sporty’ one in school. She hates exercise and believes the only reason to do it is for food, booze and box-sets on t...
The Seven Ages of DeathDr Richard Shepherd, a medical detective and...
Dr Richard Shepherd, a medical detective and Britain's top forensic pathologist, shares twenty-four of his most intriguing, enlightening and never-before-told cases. These autopsies, spanning th...
The Flow : Rivers, Water and WildnessA visit to the rapid where she lost a cheris...
A visit to the rapid where she lost a cherished friend unexpectedly reignites Amy-Jane Beer love of rivers setting her on a journey of natural, cultural and emotional discovery. On New Years Day...
Finding HildasayThe Sunday Times Bestseller and featured on ...
The Sunday Times Bestseller and featured on Ben Fogle's New Lives in the Wild. Join Christian Lewis as he walks the entire coastline of the UK – his dog Jet in tow – and rebuilds his life, step ...
The Farmer's WifeThis honest and heartwarming memoir offers a...
This honest and heartwarming memoir offers a portrait of the labour and glory of keeping a home and raising a family. Weaving past and present, Helen Rebanks shares her highs and lows, from the ...
Everything is EverythingAs a Bolton teenager with a paper round, Cli...
As a Bolton teenager with a paper round, Clive Myrie read all the newspapers he delivered from cover to cover and dreamed of becoming a journalist. In this deeply personal memoir, he tells how h...
On Chapel Sands: My mother and other missing persons1929 - a young girl...1929 - a young girl is kidnapped from a beach. Five agonising days go by before she is discovered safe and well in a nearby village.
Reading My Mother Back: A Memoir in Childhood Animal StoriesWhen his mother die...When his mother died, Timothy C. Baker discovered that there was almost no record of her existence, and no stories that were his to tell: the only way to bring her back ...Recently Viewed Products
