Introduction

Menopause is a natural part of the ageing process, and one which touches all our lives. It is also a topic that provokes unease, silence and selfcensorship, perhaps as a result of society’s ongoing discomfort with the opinions and experiences of older women.

The Silent Archive Project was conceived to facilitate open and honest conversations around menopause and middle age, and to document women’s experiences through discussions and interviews supported by the East Midlands Oral History Archive.

This collection of poems and prose emerged from a series of creative writing workshops, which gave participants the chance to explore their thoughts and feelings through metaphor and memoir writing.

The pieces in this anthology reflect our complicated relationships with ageing, change, health and our bodies. Many of the writers describe feelings of loss and hardship, while others speak of liberation and empowerment. In these pages you will find beauty, empathy, humour and understanding – but most of all, you will find stories of incredible resilience and hope.

This collection is an act of solidarity, defiance and support. If you are going through similar struggles, we hope these pieces of writing help you to realise that you are not alone.

Leanne Moden and Anna Cotton December 2020

This anthology comes out of The Silent Archive project which was set up by the East Midlands Oral History Archive at the University of Leicester, with a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, to bring women together from across the region to record oral testimonies about menopause. There is limited oral testimony in the archives documenting women's lives during this life stage. This project aims to address this 'silence' by establishing a collection of interviews, conversations and audio diaries about menopause, offering a resource for future researchers to consider menopause within a wider historical context.

Helen Foster, EMOHA January 2021