How often do we speak our truth? How often do we say yes when we really mean no?
Fearne Cotton’s voice is familiar to millions, though radio, TV and on her hugely successful Happy Place podcast. When her doctor told her she might need a throat operation, followed by a fortnight of not speaking, she found herself contemplating what silence would mean.
Her Sunday Times bestselling book Speak Your Truth explores how we silence ourselves, becoming pleasers and compromisers at the cost of our own happiness and wellbeing. She uses her own experience to explore how we can all end up pretending to be more dazzling but less honest versions of ourselves. For Fearne, the exhausting effort left her lonelier and sadder.
Speak Your Truth dives into all the ways we learn to stay quiet for the wrong reasons. It explores how to find your voice, assert yourself and speak out with confidence. Being your authentic self is important and valuable. Saying what’s on your mind, and living each day with your truth being set free is quite a way to live.
This book is definitely eye-opening. It feels like a therapy session, a big hug, and a one-to-one with a friend, all rolled into one. Fearne Cotton’s colloquial style of writing helps create that feeling which many readers love. However, some note that it was very one-sided, and they felt they were reading Fearne’s daily journal, rather than an advice manual or a self-help book.
Speak Your Truth allows us to hear Fearne’s story, with something of a running commentary on her perspective of the world and its current traumas, along with some helpful observations and insights.
While some sections of the book were easy to read and whizz through, other parts make you stop and think, and the worksheets and blank diagrams provided after each chapter were pleasing added touches. Many readers found them really helpful, as they made them analyse and reflect on their own experiences and how they may have led to certain outcomes.
The book aims to help people find their inner voice and get the most out of their lives by speaking up for themselves. Fearne herself is very relatable, which helps immensely.
The readers of She Said Book Club recommend Speak Your Truth as a very simple book before bedtime, to switch your brain off. It’s a lovely insight into how we can all inject a little more love and kindness into our own lives, and the lives of others.
However, although Fearne’s experiences are very relatable to many, some of our readers felt their high expectations of this book were slightly let down by its lack of depth. Most of the members agreed that Fearne is a great role model, and would recommend Speak Your Truth as a short, accessible read