The Time In Between: A memoir of hunger and hope

Description

When Nancy Tucker was eight years old, her class had to write about what they wanted in life. She thought, and thought, and then, though she didn't know why, she wrote: 'I want to be thin.' Over the next twelve years, she developed anorexia nervosa, was hospitalised, and finally swung the other way towards bulimia nervosa. She left school, rejoined school; went in and out of therapy; ebbed in and out of life. From the bleak reality of a body breaking down to the electric mental highs of starvation, hers has been a life held in thrall by food. Told with remarkable insight, dark humour and acute intelligence, The Time in Between is a profound, important window into the workings of an unquiet mind - a Wasted for the 21st century.

Nancy Tucker is a 21-year-old author and nanny. She suffered from both anorexia and bulimia nervosa throughout her teens, but is now on the road to recovery and began a degree at Oxford University to study Experimental Psychology in 2015. She lives in Oxford and London.

Nancy is fiercely intelligent ... [her book] is astonishingly good ... and a devastating insight into a horrifying illness and its terrible toll. * The Sunday Times * The book is stylish and incisive, and [Nancy] weaves her tale of fear and food, confusion and calories grippingly and with skill. * Guardian * Nancy Tucker wrote to me when she was a little girl. Her letter must have really impressed me, because I replied that she was such a good writer that I was sure she'd have a book of her own published one day. And so she has, aged 21 - a startlingly affecting, starkly written account of her anorexia. This isn't just another anorexia misery memoir - it's a work of literature * Jacqueline Wilson * I've never felt so immersed in someone else's world... they were being so utterly truthful even when describing incredibly difficult times in their lives... hopefully it'll lead to a better understanding of eating disorders in the general public. * Mind * More than simply a tale of suffering, this book is an illustration of the complexity of eating disorder and a reminder that the 'cure' for each sufferer may need to be as multifaceted and as personal as the disorder itself. * The Psychologist * I'm hardly the target market, but I found Tucker's account of her illness clear-sighted, eye-opening, moving and wise. * The Bookseller *