READING CURE: How Books Restored My Appetite

This true bibliophile tells her personal story of salvation and picnics, ravioli and freedom, Dickens and survival. At the age of 14, Laura Freeman was diagnosed with anorexia, but even when recovery seemed impossible, the one appetite she never lost was her love of reading. Book by book, Laura slowly rediscovered how to enjoy food and life through literature. Always intelligent and full of enthusiasm, her highly engaging memoir is packed with astute insights into the books she has read and a rediscovery of the joy of food. She menders into chocolate in books, discovering Virginia Woolf's criticism, polemic in fiction. 'At dinner, when at home, Woolf has omelettes and good coffee. Luncheon might be rissoles and chocolate custard.' There is no guilt here in her consumption of hardbacks and paperbacks. 'If you were to ask me what I was doing among the Portobello book stalls at half past five in the morning, I would have to invoke the defence of a late-night fridge raider caught with a tub of chocolate-chip ice cream.' 260pp, paperback.