21 Miles

By: Jessica Hepburn

Narrated by: Jessica Hepburn

After a decade of trying to become a mother - 11 rounds of unsuccessful IVF, multiple miscarriages and a pregnancy which proved almost fatal - Jessica Hepburn knew it was time to do something different.

So she decided to swim the 21 miles across the English Channel - no easy feat, especially for someone with an aversion to exercise who couldn't swim very well. As the punishing training commenced, Jessica learned you need to put on weight to stave off the cold. This then led to another idea: what if she wrote to a collection of inspiring women, asking if they would meet and eat with her to answer the question: does motherhood make you happy?

The response was overwhelming. From baronesses and professors to award winners and record-breakers, amazing women from different walks of life - some mothers, some not - all with compelling truths to tell about female fulfilment and the meaning of motherhood. On 2 September 2015, Jessica set out from Dover beach in the dark, taking the words that each of the women had given to sea in her bid to answer the question.

©2018 Jessica Hepburn (P)2019 Audible, Ltd

Fellow Channel Swimmer

I swam the Channel the year after Jessica having been “weathered out” in 2018. I absolutely loved hearing her training and swim stories & so much echoed with my own experience and of course I know many of the people she talked about. I am not a natural athlete & also fell into the world of open water swimming after adversity.
But more than that, I was interested in the stories of the other women and Jessicas own journey. I am a mother but motherhood has been very different to how I imagined - I have a disabled & complex (now adult) son ~ so it has been a book that has also prompted a period of interesting self reflection.

"Does motherhood make you happy?"

I loved this book. It was so well written reflecting on the authors life, her being childless not by choice, and her desire to learn from different women she admired. The book follows her path to do something big, and interviews of women she admires in her quest to find out if motherhood makes you happy. She seamlessly flows between her journey to swim the English Channel and her conversations with uniqie, wise women reflecting on happiness. I was skeptical of the book at first but I'm so glad picked it up. I really appreciated that Jessica Hepburn decided to interview mothers, childfree women, childless women, great adventurers, leaders, and inspiration women to learn about happiness, fulfillment, and grief. Maybe its hard to write an interesting story on the highs and lows of ordinary life, but by capturing a little bit of so many different lives the book had me looking forward to my next commute.

Beautiful and inspiring, helpful

This book is about so much more than motherhood or even swimming the English Channel. It’s about hopes and various types of grief and what is a fulfilling and more. The story was beautifully written and I liked that the author was the narrator, it felt so candid. I’ve also been wondering about whether or not I want children, and if I have them, can I still change the world? This book helped me on my path to finding the answer to those questions and I’m extremely grateful.

Helpful

Many books on this subject seem so cringy that I don’t want to read them. This one was helpful. Everyone’s journey is different.