When Nancy Tucker was eight years old, her class had to write about what they wa
nted to be when they grew up. She thought, and thought, and then, though she did
n't know why, she wrote: 'I want to be thin.' Over the next twelve years, she de
veloped anorexia, was hospitalised, and finally swung the other way towards bing
e eating disorder. 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 foo
d. 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.
