Her Name Is Alice: My Daughter, Her Transition and Why We Must Remember Her

(Hardback)

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'Thoughtful, beautiful, incredibly necessary. People need to read this book, especially if they feel a resistance to. I wish everyone would.' Sofie HagenUncompromising, anguished, combative: culture wars have victims, and this is an agonising story told with honesty and passion. Richard Beard'An intimate, beautifully told memoir' Elinor Cleghorn

When my third child was born, I was told I had a boy. The baby was given a boys name and raised in that gender. But when she died, twenty years later, she died as my daughter, and will forever be remembered that way.

Alice Litman died by suicide in May 2022, aged just twenty years old, having already waited almost three years for her first appointment at a gender identity clinic.

In stunningly beautiful prose, Caroline Litman captures the realities of an often-messy journey navigating both her daughters transition and the days, weeks and months after Alices death.

Searing, urgent and utterly unique, Her Name is Alice is the raw, human story of a mothers love and grief for her child and of a young trans woman who is impossible to forget and who must be remembered.

Reviews

A tragic, defiant story beautifully and deftly told. It is a timely reminder that the victims of the relentless culture wars are real people with real lives who love each other with unimaginable intensity. Life's complicated, and we do it a disservice to reduce it to cheap soundbites. Caroline Litman's elegy illustrates this perfectly. Paul Sinha

'An urgent, powerful call for people to be trusted, supported, and cared for in their gender identities, and as themselves. With searing honesty, Litman reveals the damage done to people and their loved ones when uninformed hostility subsumes understanding, and kindness.' Elinor Cleghorn

'I read it in two sittings, two big gulps. It feels inadequate to say how brave she is, in the living of the experience and then the honest, raw recounting of it. Her voice is as clear as a bell and she shares a powerful insight into a system so ineffective and broken it feels pointless. Seeing this through her daughters and her familys eyes is breathtakingly awful and compelling with glimmers of hope in the conclusion.' Lucy Brazier

'A heart-breaking book also an incredibly important one. By telling frankly the story of her daughter's life a project that was 'a drive, not a choice' Caroline Litman shines an unyielding, necessary light on the devastating impact of transphobia, and the urgent need for broader understanding of the emotional reality of trans lives.' John McCullough

'An intimate reflection on a mother-daughter relationship that is frank and heartbreaking. Caroline bravely shares how her own prejudice towards transgender people impacted how she treated Alice when she came out, showing us that it is possible for people to change their views. While the NHS trans healthcare system is moving in the wrong direction to prevent further tragedies like Alice's death, we can still hope that Her Name Is Alice helps other parents to love their trans kids as fiercely as Caroline loves Alice.' Vic Parsons

Author Bio

Caroline Litman is a writer, activist and former psychiatrist based in Surrey. Caroline and her family were awarded an Attitude Pride Award in 2024 for their campaigning work. She is on Bluesky as @alicemydaughter.bsky.social