This memoir is a shocking, stunning account of a rural Australian childhood, but also a heartfelt chronicle of living with a mental illness, abuse, rejection, love, hope and resilience.
It is a story of reclaiming an identity lost in childhood.
The younger of two daughters, June Alexander, grew up with a seemingly idyllic childhood on a dairy farm in South-East Australia. She is in her dad's shadow, helping him on the farm and exploring the outdoors. Eleven is a memorable age for June, it is the year she develops an obsession with food and her wieght.
A lifetime of self-doubt and deception follows as she lives daily with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. The illness is undiagnosed for 21 years. As she develops a successful journalism career she clings desperately to it as her only identity.
