TY - BOOK AU - Blades,Jay TI - Making it: how love, kindness and community helped me repair my life SN - 9781004052073 (pbk.) : AV - PN1992.4 U1 - 791.4509 BLA 23 PY - 2021/// CY - Rearsby PB - Clipper Large Print Books KW - Blades, Jay. KW - Television personalities KW - Great Britain KW - Biography KW - Large type books KW - ukslc KW - Biography & non-fiction prose KW - thema N2 - 'We had our hardships, and there were times that we didn't have a lot of food and didn't have a lot of money. But that didn't stop me having the time of my life.' Making It is an inspirational memoir about beating the odds and turning things around even when it all seems hopeless. In this book, Jay shares the details of his life, from his childhood growing up sheltered and innocent on a council estate in Hackney, to his adolescence when he was introduced to violent racism at secondary school, to being brutalized by police as a teen, to finally becoming a beloved star of the hit primetime show The Repair Shop. Jay reflects on strength, weakness and what it means to be a man. He questions the boundaries society places on male vulnerability and how letting himself be nurtured helped him flourish into the person he is today. An expert at giving a second life to cherished items, he speaks about how his role as a restorer mirrors his own life - if something's broken, you can always find a way to put it back together ER -