The Sophia Forum partners with acclaimed author, Juno Roche to launch new book

The Sophia Forum is thrilled to partner with former trustee and acclaimed author, Juno Roche, on the launch of their new book, A Working Class Family Ages Badly.

Juno was born into a working-class family in London in the sixties, who dabbled in minor criminality. For their father, violence and love lived together, for their mother addiction was the only way to survive. School was a respite, but shortly after starting university Juno was diagnosed with HIV, then a death sentence.

Juno is a survivor; they outlived their diagnosis, got a degree and became an artist. But however hard you try to take the kid out of the family, some scars go too deep; trying to run from AIDS and their childhood threw Juno into dark years of serious drug addiction, addiction often financed by sex work.

Running from home eventually took Juno across the sea to a tiny village in Spain, surrounded by mountains. Only once they found a quiet little house with an olive tree in the garden did Juno start to wonder if they had run too far, and whether they have really been searching for a family all along.

“When my publishers asked me to name a charity I wished to partner with for the release of my book – ‘A Working Class Family Ages Badly’ it was an easy choice to make. The Sophia Forum’s aims and values fit completely with mine – the recognition of patriarchal damage, the recognition of sexist structures that seek to keep women’s needs pushed to the margins and to problematise the needs and rights of women and to obstruct our places within research, funding and delivery. Marginalised women are still far too often ignored or offered crumbs of lip service. The Sophia Forum works tirelessly to address these inequalities and works tirelessly to support all women, all people who identity as women living with HIV and at risk from HIV. It was an easy choice to partner with them.”

Juno Roche – writer, A Working Class Family Ages Badly.