"Juno Roche has had a remarkable life. They were born in Peckham in the 1960s, into a working-class family who dabbled in minor criminality. The only one of their siblings to go to university, shortly after beginning their course at Brighton they were diagnosed with HIV, then a death sentence. They spent much of their younger life caught up in serious drug addiction, addiction financed often by sex work, but recovered and, after working for some years as a teacher, have for a long time now been a writer and successful campaigner.
Through a series of interconnecting essays covering a range of major topics, but with reference to the intensely personal - pubic lice, drug smuggling on budget airlines, the painful process of dilation after gender reassignment surgery - Juno Roche seeks to debunk complacent preconceptions and radically hone in on our essential humanity. This is beautiful, vulnerable, often very funny writing which, despite the extremeness of the writer's own experience, is constantly, reassuringly relatable. Destructive impulses, sexual and romantic awkwardness, ill equipped parents and a constant sense of feeling out of sorts in and with the world, there is a universality to much of this, and that feels crucially important."
In my 2017 interview with her, I asked her about which feminist ideas she regards as most important and appealing: "I do an awful lot of work that examines the connection between gender-based violence and HIV and intimate partner violence and HIV. We know that many women, trans and cis, are still victims of violence perpetrated against them by people they know and often have relationships with.
Society still places these women as being wrong, as being to blame, look at the new law in Russia in relation to violence within relationships. There is a huge amount of work to do in order that women are safe within societies and that women have autonomy over their own bodies and actions."
Available via Amazon
Photo via Heroines of My Life
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