59: Melanie Reid MBE – The world I fell out of: what happens when everything changes?

Our guest today is the award-winning Times journalist and bestselling author, Melanie Reid. In 2010, a riding accident saw Melanie break both her neck and back, leaving her paralysed. Since then, she has written about her attempts to come to terms with her disability in her weekly ‘Spinal Column’ for The Times. Her bestselling memoir ‘The World I Fell Out Of’ won the Saltire Scottish non-fiction book of the year, for its heart-wrenching and humorous account of her lifechanging accident. Outside of her writer’s room, Melanie is the patron of numerous charities including Spinal Research, the Association for Continence Advice, the Colostomy Association and Friends at the End, all matters she never expected to be expert in. She is renowned for her dry humour and authenticity and her tip is simply this: ‘do a lot of dancing.’Melanie Reid MBE is a writer with The Times. Since 2010, when she broke her neck in a riding accident, she’s written Spinal Column, an award-winning account of life with disability. Born in London, resident in Scotland, she’s spent 40 years as a journalist, newspaper executive, broadcaster and self-styled “slayer of waffle”. She’s a patron of Spinal Research, the Association for Continence Advice, the Colostomy Association and Friends at the End. The paperback of her best-selling memoir The World I Fell Out Of, which won the Saltire prize for non-fiction, is out now.