Catherine Simpson
Catherine Simpson is a novelist and memoir writer based in Edinburgh. Her memoir One Body was published by Saraband in 2022 and was selected for World Book Night in 2023 and shortlisted in the Scottish Book Awards. This followed her 2019 memoir When I Had a Little Sister which was published to great critical acclaim: ‘superb’ (Sunday Times) ‘riveting’ (Observer). Her debut novel Truestory was published in 2015 and won her a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award. Her work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland.
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Catherine Simpson believed the hardest chapters of her life were behind her. She had raised two children – one of them autistic – and survived both a family suicide and her own cancer treatment. In her fifties, it was time to enjoy restoring her health, reducing work commitments, hanging out with friends and relaxing with her husband in their empty nest.
But when the global pandemic shut the world down, Catherine’s nonagenarian father’s independence began to slip away just as her adult daughter’s mental health spiralled into crisis.
Sandwiched is a candid memoir about being trapped in a high- pressure, intergenerational squeeze. It is a story of letting go of the superwoman myth, confronting the limits of control and responsibility, and trying to avoid unsafe speeding on the motorway – yet still providing loving care.
