My Story [Paperback]

Caroline Cossey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1992

In 1989 Caroline Cossey, who was born male, made an appeal to the European Commission of Human Rights. She was fighting for the legal right to marry as a woman. The author tells of her childhood in Norfolk, the operations that liberated her sexually and her persecution by the tabloid press.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber (July 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571129099
• ISBN-13: 978-0571129096
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #884,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More courage than most could muster..., November 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: My Story (Paperback)

Caroline "Tula" Cossey's book tells the fascinating story of a male-to-female transsexual. Written as so many such books are in the first person, unlike most in this genre, it reads fresh, if a little one-sided. Most distinguishing however is that Caroline is a famously beautiful woman, who, as a model much in demand need never have told anyone she had been born a boy. Had she not been forced by wretched journalistic cruelty to reveal the most intimate details about her private and until then quite successful life, we might never have thought her life worthy of a book. Now, we can be glad perhaps that we are able to gain an insight into her world.

Caroline attempts to relate as honestly as she can a story which is at times incredible, and possibly horrifying to some. Throughout we find evidence of her hope and great belief in her basic right to live a normal life.

This is a freedom which only now, thanks largely to her efforts, is beginning to be recognised in most civilised countries. Caroline is in many ways an unwilling champion of the rights of people who find themselves in a similar situation to herself. Part of the fascination I felt in reading her story was that such an obviously beautiful and talented person could have had such strength to recover from bitterness and defeat to press on and retain her dignity. What was done to her by the English gutter press would have driven many to suicide.

Her gripping trials make inspirational reading for those who may be likewise afflicted and look to her for hope for themselves. For others, her book serves as a testiment to the power of determination against formidable odds. Caroline deserves our utmost respect, indeed, our admiration.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another reader from Canada, June 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: My Story (Paperback)

I too,like the other reader from Canada would love to e-mail Caroline to tell her how grateful I am for her gripping life story. I too, have followed a similar path as her and was moved to tears when I read of her failed message. I originally purchased her first book, Tula: I am a Woman in the 1980's and was very familiar with her life, but "My Story" really brought home how difficult it is for us transexuals to live our lives and be accepted as human beings and not some kind of circus freaks. Thank you Tula for bringing home dignity to our cause. Thank you.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Story a wonderful and insightful true story, February 16, 2003

By 

Diane Sutton (Branchbur, N.J. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Story (Paperback)

Caroline has done nothing less than a superb job in telling of her story and the may hardships and adventures. Her ability to convey these events as they took place is a very heart warming tale of her journey through a very difficult situation that some of us must make in our lives.

Her hardships are tempered with those of happy days where she had found many friends. Her vivid descriptions of the heataches is telling of the tribulations she has endured.

Her loves and tragic losses are given in such a way that the reader feels her pain as well as her joys. She now lives in the U.S.A. somewhere near Atlanta. But her life has and continues to bring many of us warmth and hope through her books.

This is one book that I have enjoyed reading and will always cherish my entire life. I only wish I had transitioned as early as her and had known this beautiful woman.

Like so many I would love her to autograph the book.