When Bad Things Happen in Good Bikinis

Book excerpt: Writer Helen Bailey's world fell apart in early 2011 when she and her workaholic husband took off on a well-earned break to Barbados and days after arriving Helen watched helplessly from the beach as he was dragged out to sea in a rip-current and drowned. Alone and more than three thousand miles from home, she was a wife at breakfast and a widow by lunchtime. With her life as she knew it shattered, Helen began to chronicle living after such devastating and shocking loss in a blog - Planet Grief - and gained a worldwide following from many who had experienced huge loss, whether through death or divorce. And now her blog has become a book. Anecdotal, witty, heartbreaking and utterly grounded, When Bad Things Happen to Good Bikinis covers all the obvious struggles in the aftermath of a loss, as well as many not-so-obvious but just as poignant everyday obstacles. Helen has emerged from her nightmare, and her story will bring wry humour, comfort and hope to a huge number of people, whatever their circumstances.