Halfway to Venus: A One-Armed Journey

Sarah Anderson

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Why I wrote this book

For the last 15 years this is a book that I felt I had to write. Although I lost my arm to cancer when I was ten – it had never affected anything that I wanted to do – the only problem was and continues to be other people’s reactions. The more I thought about this the more I felt that an arm was a metaphor for differences that any of us might have; people often don’t know how to react to change and difference - mainly through fear. When I started thinking about this I thought how interesting it would be to look at the way arms are portrayed in other cultures, in history, in literature and in art. Most of us take arms and hands for granted – and most of us have them - its not until you lose one that you begin to think about its importance. This is therefore a book that should be read by anyone who has arms and who has an interest in how useful they are.

Synopsis

Sarah Anderson was born in 1947. At the age of 10 she developed synovial sarcoma, an extremely rare but virulent cancer of the soft tissue which led, six months later, to her arm being amputated. She read Chinese at London University, has travelled widely and went on to set up the Travel Bookshop in 1979 arranging the books country by country in the belief that you can learn as much about a country from its literature and history as from guide books. The bookshop moved to Notting Hill in 1981 and became world famous as the bookshop on which the film Notting Hill was based. She has written many travel articles, gives talks and has published several books. Halfway to Venus is about her life with one arm. It is also about other people who have lost their arms, about phantom and prosthetic limbs, about what hands and arms mean in different cultures and how they are portrayed in art and literature. Life with one arm is different in many subtle ways and this deeply personal book demonstrates why and how this is.
Sarah Anderson examines peoples' reactions, from the casual to the more highly charged; she looks at the effect, both erotic and otherwise, of having only one arm on sexual and romantic encounters, describing both poignantly and entertainingly what she has learnt. Among many other experiences, she visits Lourdes and, going from the sublime to the ridiculous, she takes part in a One Armed Dove Hunt in Texas.

Reviews

This is a remarkable book: honest and beautifully written. While humorous and engaging, it also reminds one of the importance of acceptance and courage. Caroline Moorehead

Sarah Anderson lost her left arm to cancer when she was ten. This is her unflinching account - a death sentence, an amputation, and then the long slow struggle against other people’s attitudes, namely their own fear. What she calls her search for her “lost” arm leads Anderson well beyond a moving personal history and into a broader investigation of the significance of the hand and arm in art and literature. The result is an absolutely fascinating and empowering book. Nicholas Shakespeare

A remarkable act of self-understanding: brave and poignant, yet with no trace of self-pity. Colin Thubron

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