Bohemian Negligence: A memoir

My first memory of life is blurry. A blurry red dot. A strawberry in a thicket of dark green vines and tall grass.

Bertie Blackman grew up too fast. Bohemian Negligence tells that story with the breathtaking innocence of a child's point of view: close and vivid and utterly in the moment. As memories refract and elide with the images, sounds and impressions of Bertie's child's world, we experience both her wonder and confusion with astonishing intimacy.

A renowned musician and artist, Bertie is also a formidable and lyrical writer, and brings those gifts to recreate the world she grew up in. As the daughter of iconic artist Charles Blackman, that world celebrated freedom and creativity but also contained darkness and contradictions. Bertie has captured the magic and vulnerability of childhood in words and images both joyful and haunting: 'My childhood world was full of cracks. Full of light and full of dark. But it was full of love.' This book will stay with you forever.