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What to expect

Winner of the Sunday Times Sports Book Award 2022

If you are the girl, the woman who feels like she is never enough, that she will never be as strong, as good, as capable, I am here to tell you that you are enough. I am here to tell you that while it shouldn’t have been your burden, you can write a different story.

Stronger, passionately read by the author, will change what you think you know about strength and, most importantly, empower you to go on your own journey to discover what strength looks like for you.

Now a competitive amateur powerlifter who can lift over twice her own bodyweight, Poorna Bell is perfectly placed to start a crucial conversation about women’s strength and fitness, one that has nothing to do with weight loss. In Stronger she challenges the notions taught to us as girls, and examines how all of us can tap into our reservoir of inner strength to make us our strongest selves mentally and physically. Describing taking up weightlifting after the death of her husband, she shows how discovering her own strength helped her to find the confidence that physical pursuits can amplify – the confidence that has been helping men to succeed for centuries – and that women can find too.

In these pages, Poorna tells not only her own story but those of a range of women, investigating intersections of race, age and social background. Part memoir, part manifesto, Stronger explodes old-fashioned notions and long-held beliefs about getting strong and explores the relationship between mental and physical strength.

Whether you’re into weightlifting, running, swimming, yoga or don’t consider yourself to be sporty at all, Poorna shows how finding strength can work for you, regardless of age, ability or background.

Critics Review

  • Raw and moving, Bell connects grief and strength and touches on the unrelenting pressure women face to be strong in a way that hasn’t been tackled before.

    Cosmopolitan

  • A beautiful, inspiring book that will change the way you think about exercise. I only wish it had existed when I was younger.

    Bryony Gordon

  • This book gives us permission to establish a healthy relationship with our bodies and strength.

    Fearne Cotton

  • Poorna’s story is one that will inspire women everywhere, tragedy showed her how strong she was inside which would in turn show her how strong she could become on the outside.

    June Sarpong

  • This amazing book reminds us all that we are stronger than we know. Poorna gives readers – whatever their age – the confidence to explore their inner and outer strength in such life-affirming style.

    Stacey Solomon

  • Poorna encapsulates in this book everything I wish I’d known and been told when I first started exercising. Stronger is a book for those who want to see beyond the aesthetic goals, and truly appreciate the mental and physical benefits of movement.

    Alice Liveing

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