Short description
When the author's cherished god-daughter Emma descended into a long and frightening battle with Anorexia, she found herself at a loss to know quite what to do. This is the story of the author's relationship with Emma.
Long description
When the author's cherished god-daughter Emma descended into a long and frightening battle with Anorexia, Carol found herself at a loss to know quite what to do. Faced with a confusing assortment of perspectives, theories and treatments from the medical and psychiatric professions, there seemed to be little agreement regarding this perplexing, voracious and sometimes fatal illness. This is the true story of Carol's relationship with Emma, the girl who 'adopted me in a London pub when she was two and three quarters'. The author tells of her quest to understand and help Emma, weaving back and forth in time creating a picture of Emma's childhood and describing her long battle with anorexia; her time spent in a secure unit, the secrecy and fury that forever lurked beneath the fragile surface and the infuriating, heartbreaking but ultimately life-saving relationship that they share. Now, fully recovered, we learn through the entries of her diaries and in the book's afterword how Emma struggled to escape from her dangerous, extraordinary 'dark romance' with anorexia and how it was the stories and words that were fed to her that helped her to slowly become well again.
Review
A painfully honest chronicle...beautifully written.
--Scottish Daily Record