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A Song For Jenny: A Mother's Story of Love and Loss
On 7 July 2005, Julie Nicholson's life was changed forever. Her daughter, Jenny, was killed on her way to work in the London bombings, shaking Julie's beliefs. With heartbreaking honesty and integrity, Julie tells her story of love, tragedy and heartache for the first time.
Jenny Nicholson was travelling to work when a bomb exploded at Edgware Road Tube station. Her mother, Reverend Julie Nicholson, was on holiday in Anglesey at the time and watched the situation unfold on the television before travelling to London to search for her missing daughter. After five terrible days, her daughter's death was confirmed. Struggling to comprehend the tragedy, Julie's sorrow and longing for her beloved daughter turned to rage and anger at the senseless death.
In what will doubtless be considered a landmark grief memoir, Julie Nicholson takes us painstakingly through each moment from when Jenny fails to answer her mobile, to anointing her body.
Devastatingly honest and courageous, Julie tells of her love and loss as only a mother can.
Jenny Nicholson was travelling to work when a bomb exploded at Edgware Road Tube station. Her mother, Reverend Julie Nicholson, was on holiday in Anglesey at the time and watched the situation unfold on the television before travelling to London to search for her missing daughter. After five terrible days, her daughter's death was confirmed. Struggling to comprehend the tragedy, Julie's sorrow and longing for her beloved daughter turned to rage and anger at the senseless death.
In what will doubtless be considered a landmark grief memoir, Julie Nicholson takes us painstakingly through each moment from when Jenny fails to answer her mobile, to anointing her body.
Devastatingly honest and courageous, Julie tells of her love and loss as only a mother can.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 31, 2023
Probably the saddest book that I have ever read and so open about what it was like to go through this dreadful experience that it feels almost an intrusion to read it.
Shocking to read about the incompetence from the authorities in how long it takes them to identify victims and the uncaring way that relatives were treated due to bureaucracy and incompetence in some cases.
Also makes you reflect on the importance of family and friends and to count your blessings and how vulnerable we all really are to fate.
Jenny shouldn’t have been on that train but for works diverting her to a route going the opposite direction from where she was meant to be going.
A book that will stay with you a long time after finishing it.
Shocking to read about the incompetence from the authorities in how long it takes them to identify victims and the uncaring way that relatives were treated due to bureaucracy and incompetence in some cases.
Also makes you reflect on the importance of family and friends and to count your blessings and how vulnerable we all really are to fate.
Jenny shouldn’t have been on that train but for works diverting her to a route going the opposite direction from where she was meant to be going.
A book that will stay with you a long time after finishing it.
June 4, 2011
Given the subject matter, I don’t think it would be surprising to anybody that, at times, this book was quite an uncomfortable read. The author, Julie Nicholson, lost her daughter Jenny on the 7th July 2005 in London as a victim of a tube bombing. This book is thus a tribute to her daughter as well as charting a mother’s frustrations towards the official follow-up and governmental inquiries into the terrorist attacks. The book is written in a hauntingly honest and sensitive manner and ultimately charts Nicholson’s total loss of control to any official follow-up of her daughter’s death. Ultimately and obviously Nicholson as a mother must live her life in limbo as well as in grief as the terrorism plot of 7/7 is unfolded and steadily revealed. Like with any other victim’s family, Nicholson finds her position to be akin to something of a pawn in a terrorist’s game as she is left to personally deal with the enormity of such an aftermath with scores of questions left unanswered. In her own job role as a Reverend, it appears that her relationship with God understandably begins to fracture due to such a burden of grief and unjustifiable loss.
As far as the book goes, it seems almost churlish and inappropriate to give it something as futile as a star rating. This book is not one of entertainment and is rather an account of grief and coping and of general humanity and humankind in every sense. It is educative and totally moving to the reader who will empathise and gain further understanding of Nicholson’s position. I’ve therefore given it a five star rating for its unswerving power to communicate to the masses on just one of the background stories of 7/7 that without this memoir would have been left un-communicated. Via her work, Nicholson has managed to express the total futility of 7/7 as a day that will memorialise the actions of cowards who killed and maimed dozens of innocents.
Uncomfortable yet truthful reading. A memoir of love, loss and ultimately of great courage.
P.S – Please note, this book is also known as ‘A Song for Jenny’. This was the name of the book I read published by HarperCollins.
As far as the book goes, it seems almost churlish and inappropriate to give it something as futile as a star rating. This book is not one of entertainment and is rather an account of grief and coping and of general humanity and humankind in every sense. It is educative and totally moving to the reader who will empathise and gain further understanding of Nicholson’s position. I’ve therefore given it a five star rating for its unswerving power to communicate to the masses on just one of the background stories of 7/7 that without this memoir would have been left un-communicated. Via her work, Nicholson has managed to express the total futility of 7/7 as a day that will memorialise the actions of cowards who killed and maimed dozens of innocents.
Uncomfortable yet truthful reading. A memoir of love, loss and ultimately of great courage.
P.S – Please note, this book is also known as ‘A Song for Jenny’. This was the name of the book I read published by HarperCollins.
August 10, 2010
this is an excellent book about a mother's grief and anger at the killing of her daughter in the terrorist attack in London on 7th July 2005. It highlights the need to avoid pious platitudes when dealing with the bereaved.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews