Yes!: Memoir of a woman who walked cheerfully towards a life she could call her own.

by Sue Greenwood

Sue Greenwood’s instinct was to follow her nose and say ‘YES!’ to everything, shortly followed by, “Oh S*%t! How am I going to get myself out of this one!”
Raised in war-torn London in the early 40s in a spiritually rich but penniless bohemian Quaker family, Sue navigated through marriage and motherhood in the 60s before setting off alone to work in Singapore, aged 42.
You might call it a fight for she calls it one-helluva serendipitous adventure.

221 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 16, 2024

Reviews

[Karen O'Connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Story of a determined woman

This memoir is a peek into a field of work very unfamiliar to me, and therefore curiously fascinating. It is a life’s tale of a determined woman who was able to adapt and make the best of unexpected opportunities in unexpected places with unexpected characters. She said YES and then lived up to the challenge.

[Stephen Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a memoir of great distinction, both funny and moving. It deserves a very wide readership. Sue Greenwood skilfully evokes what it felt like to grow up in a bohemian household in wartime London. Her father, one of the leading Quakers of his generation, was constantly writing and inviting people into the family home which was usually a jumble of humanity. Her mother, crazy about ballet, was the daughter of an Orthodox Jewish man who disowned her when she married a non-Jew. Greenwood, after an unhappy marriage which at times took her to the edge, switched professionally from actress to voice coach and created a whole new life for herself in Singapore. She started work there with the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation and later taught public speaking skills to ministers in the Singapore cabinet. Lee Kuan Yew, founding father of Singapore, mentions her work in his autobiography. There is much rich storytelling in this memoir, from Greenwood’s account of teaching presentation skills to Singapore zookeepers to a touching vignette on the loneliness of a new prime minister, one of her many students. Her writing on the subject of her father’s death is sublime.