Who We Choose to Be

Who We Choose to Be, the deeply personal and courageous memoir by Gillian Silverthorn, has received the Literary Titan Book Award, and The Love Reading Book Award recognising the book’s emotional honesty, reflective storytelling, and powerful exploration of sobriety, grief, family, and self-discovery.

In Who We Choose to Be, Silverthorn takes readers on a bittersweet journey from childhood and teenage memory into the difficult realities of adulthood, where the wonder and magic of earlier years can become clouded by loss, duty, disillusionment, and emotional survival. With striking vulnerability, she examines how alcohol dependency can begin quietly, first as a confidence booster and social comfort, then gradually become a coping mechanism and a private daily struggle.

reviews have praised the memoir as “open-hearted, sincere, and full of hard-earned light,” highlighting Silverthorn’s ability to capture the complexity of life through intimate details and emotional truth. The review noted the memoir’s compelling reflections on love, grief, aging, family obligation, and the hard-won clarity that comes after choosing sobriety at sixty.

The book offers an honest account of brave vulnerability, following Silverthorn’s recognition of psychological dependency and her decision to embrace sobriety and live more fully. Rather than presenting recovery as a simple transformation, Who We Choose to Be portrays sobriety as a raw re-entry into feeling, one marked by courage, discomfort, healing, and renewed self-respect.

Silverthorn’s memoir invites readers to reflect on their own lives and the paths they have taken. Through stories of love, loss, family, memory, and resilience, she reminds readers that every life contains moments that ask individuals to decide who they choose to become.

“If I could tell my younger self anything, it would be, do not pick up that first drink, be yourself, don’t always try to be strong,” Silverthorn shares. “It’s okay to be hurt and angry and to grieve, you don’t need to hide those feelings, they’ll have to be addressed eventually. Emotions that were numbed and pushed down over the years have had to be addressed now I am sober. A bonus is the improvement in my health, especially my mental wellbeing, and it’s never too late to make that change.”

Readers can purchase Who We Choose to Be by Gillian Silverthorn now on Amazon. Discover the award-winning memoir that reviews have called candid, searching, and full of hard-earned light.

Who We Choose to Be is a warm, reflective memoir for readers drawn to intimate life writing, stories of sobriety, complicated family relationships, grief, midlife reinvention, and the quiet courage it takes to choose peace over performance.

About the Author

Gillian Silverthorn is the author of the memoir Who We Choose to Be. Originally from a small village in Hampshire, UK, she now lives in Sennen Cove, Cornwall, with her husband, Kevin. She has two grown children, Dominic and Emma, and a granddaughter, Mimi.

In addition to memoir writing, Silverthorn writes short stories and has had several works published on line including “The Barn,” “Cwmbran Swan,” and “Inside,” 

When she is not writing, Silverthorn enjoys both creative and physical pursuits. She makes pottery, which is sold in a local shop and gallery in Penzance, and recently completed a 230-kilometre self-sufficient footrace in Kenya to raise funds for the rangers who protect local wildlife.

Website https/gilliansilverthorn.com