Delicacy: A memoir about cake and death

I love Katy in BBC Ghosts and Ted Lasso and wanted to learn more about her. I have many loved ones on the spectrum and felt almost like an intruder into her wonderfully unique mind. Loss is universal but is also different for all of us and I appreciate her willingness to share some of her difficulties with her readers. She is not alone in her struggles with body image and depression but certainly internalizes and interprets them with a rare perspective and humor that is unlike anyone I know of. It’s a wonderful rambling mess, just like all of our lives.

This book resonated on so many levels with me. I saw Katy Wix on the Agatha Raisin series and I thought she was very, very funny and relatable. Her book does not disappoint and she shares at a gut level the conflicting expectations that women, especially young women, face daily.

Funny, disturbing, and full of life. Great stories and Katy’s voice is very strong. I’m thinking of listening to it as well.

One of the best books I've read over the past ten years. A hugely affecting, funny and just brilliantly written book, there was so much I could identify with.

Katy Wix is not only a talented actress, an amazing comedian and a beautiful person, she is also a great writer.I took my time to read this book, trying to soak it all in.There were laughter and tears.Grief is something unique but also incredibly unifying as we share the pain.Unfortunately I could very much relate to her stories.

Delicacy is Katy Wix's memoir about death, grief and cake. It consists of 21 chapters of varying length and style, 21 intimate glimpses into her life, each intrinsically connected to cake.Raw and honest, she lays bare some of the most important relationships in her life, and is frank and fearless when she talking about her issues with food.Many of these chapters are about her mother's final illness and surviving the grief when she died, such as "Chimney cake, or, The thoughts I have about cancer when I open my fridge door at night for a snack". Equally, "Bara brith, or, Walking with my father" charts her relationship with her father, from childhood walks in the woods to his dementia, via a terrifying car crash. Even the most poignant chapters are tinged with humour, and some are downright funny, like "Oatcakes" which consists of emails to and from her personal trainer.Life with all its tragedy and joy has given Katy Wix a wisdom beyond her years and her memoir is a delightful way to get to know the woman behind the actress.

Psychologically astute, poetic, laugh-out-loud funny and deeply moving. Katy Wix's writing is playful and constantly surprising. It's full of quotable lines, like the description of a woman who has one hairstyle at the front and a competing one at the back. It's unlike any other memoir you've read. Fundamentally it's about loss, but somehow it manages to be life affirming. Highly recommended.

The final chapter of this book is beautiful. The agony of loss and the journey through grief is bravely explored and not remotely sentimental. But the rest of the book is a slightly random collection of memories and stories, much like a stream of consciousness and it left me feeling that cake was simply not a good enough vehicle to pull it all together. It’s a shame because the themes are brave and powerful, there will be moments which resonate deeply for many, not least the remarks adults and boys and men make about the female body. But I never felt taken anywhere by these stories, only occasionally did I feel emotion at the end of the chapter.The authors stories do have the power to shock and outrage but they are told in such a matter of fact, trying to recall way, that they never quite hit the mark for me. I longed for more evocative writing.Overall an interesting book, honest and revealing, saved by a profoundly powerful final few pages.