Sarah Moss, a “stocky” child, first realised that she could lose weight after a bout of flu as a child. She hadn’t eaten for days and, when she finally got out of bed, washed and put on clothes, her red cord trousers fell off her. Her father put her on the scales, congratulated her and told her to stick at that weight.
That’s when the dieting began, writes Women’s Prize-nominated Moss – author of books including Ghost Wall – in her new memoir. Dieting, “it turned out, was surprisingly easy”: she had experience of the act, given she had “never encountered a woman who was not on a diet, nor one who was thin enough to be allowed to eat what she wanted”. When Moss went to birthday parties and declined cake, none seemed to flinch.
Many congratulated her. The dieting escalated in adolescence until she was so malnourished that her fingers turned purple and puffed up. She was eventually diagnosed with anorexia but it was the 80s, so the advice was to simply eat more (she didn’t) or have four glasses of whole milk a day (her mother poured one over her head when she couldn’t drink it).
The causes of and recovery from a disease like anorexia are not simple, we learn. Born in 1975, Moss was raised in what she calls “boho bourgeoisies neglect” in which “the parents preferred freedom to responsibility so the children were given freedom instead of care. No one checked your homework .
.. or showed interest in your grades.
Bills went unpaid ...
birthdays were so.