Short description
Compelling, wryly funny, poignantly sad; Deirdre Barnard’s story of growing up in the spotlight has it all.
Illustrated with family photographs from Deirdre’s album, this book will appeal to a wide audience.
Both English and Afrikaans editions will be available and the media are waiting eagerly for the release of this biography. Deirdre Barnard is an entertaining and courageously forthright storyteller with a wicked wit. This a moving account of her sometimes painful but ultimately uplifting personal journey. Its compassion and humour will touch us all.
Long description
Compelling, wryly funny, poignantly sad; Deirdre Barnard's story of growing up in the spotlight has it all. Illustrated with family photographs from Deirdre's ablum, this book will appeal to a wide audience. Both English and Afrikaans editions will be available and the media are waiting eagerly for the release of this biography. This book really isn't about me at all. Well, it is and it isn't. It's about how my life happened to be but it's also for anyone who has ever been fat, affected in one way or another by divorce, dreamed about how it might be to wake up one morning and find they were Esther Williams or Flipper the Dolphin...In March 1973 I was on the cover of the 'Photo Rapport' wearing a yellow bikini. I am standing with one thigh squeezed against the other trying to make both thighs look smaller. This is because I was 'Mej. Viets', which I see [because I have just looked it up in the Tweetalige Skool Woordeboek] means 'smart, spruce or dapper'. I don't think I look 'smart, spruce or dapper' I think I look like an overweight girl sucking in her stomach and trying to hide those unfortunate thighs. I had a 'princess' called Topsie Koekemoer, a housewife from Lichtenburg, who came second. We each won a stove from C.J. Fuchs, Topsie won an outfit worth R250,00. [I don't know what you could buy with that money today, I have spent all mine on those Ferraro Rocher chocolates, you just have to remember this was a long time ago. Deirdre Barnard is an entertaining and courageously forthright storyteller with a wicked wit. This is a moving account of her sometimes painful but ultimately uplifting personal journey. Its compassion and humour will touch us all.