The Pink Lights

Born on D-Day, Shena Mackay’s life began with euphoria—had the nurses had their way, her name would have been Deeday. In this funny, celebratory, and heartfelt memoir, she takes specific dates (not always one of national or international importance) and explores their significance to her. We share her experience of watching the Coronation on a tiny screen in the darkened room of a village vicarage, listen in on the phone call with her daughter in New York when the second plane went into the Twin Towers, and drink whisky from bone china cups and saucers in David Hockney’s studio in Rachman’s Notting Hill. The memoir is packed with significant—and surreal—milestones, from her life in Earls Court and Soho in the early sixties to more recent events, leaving a beautiful exhibition by a Sussex artist at the Towner gallery, to find Eastbourne pier was in flames. Shena Mackay’s memoir is a beautiful and delicate impression of a lifetime, and a joy to read.