'I am opposed to lots of things: capitalism, misogyny, the manufacture of armaments. Nevertheless, I am essentially a good girl. My mother trained me to pay close attention.'

In Scared Angry Laughing, Margaret Merrilees shares a lifetime of attempts to heal the world. She turns up punctually for collective meetings and protests. She tries to explain sex to small giggling boys. She calculates how to get across the country with the least carbon emissions.

Merrilees has had to fight for her own rights. Having stared down homophobic doctors, trampled fences at Pine Gap and stripped off for climate change, she's well-versed in deliberate disobedience. And it turns out, good girls make good arrestees.

A joyously unruly collection of essays about civil dissent, saving the planet and losing your hearing, Scared Angry Laughing is a book for imperfect protesters and eternal optimists, young and old.