Updating you on what's happening in our family life at the moment

It's been a while since I've given you an update on Ben. To be truthful, I've been keeping a bit of a low profile in our household on the ED-front. In other words I've tried to keep things as near normal as possible. No mention of weight, no mention of calories, no getting out our contract and "doing points" as we still do on occasions. All of which is a Good Thing.

Nearly there with my new book "When anorexia came to visit"

My new book When anorexia came to visit: Families talk about how an eating disorder invaded their lives, is almost complete! Janet Treasure has written a Foreword, Becky Henry (author of Just tell her to stop) has written a Preface, Laura Collins (Founder of FEAST and author of Eating with your anorexic) has written an Introduction - and then there are 20 individual family stories plus a snippet from my own story at the back.

A huge thank you to "my" 20 wonderful, generous and courageous families!

I continue to be immensely grateful to the 20 UK families that have contributed their stories for my new book When anorexia came to visit, families talk about how an eating disorder invaded their lives. But you'll have to wait a month or so before it's published. In the meantime, here is the draft introduction to give you a taster and to show how wonderful these 20 families are...

Talking to ECHO about their self-help intervention for carers project

As part of the background research for my new book "When anorexia came to visit, families talk about how an eating disorder invaded their lives" I talked to Rebecca Hibbs of the ECHO (Expert Carers Helping Others) project to discover how this is helping parents and carers across the UK deal with the emotional and practical pressures of looking after an adolescent with an eating disorder. (Thank you, Becky, for talking with me!)

A very brief fantasy letter to the medical professionals

Dear GPs, CAMHS, the local hospital and everyone else I came across in the course of my son Ben's anorexia and all those other medical professionals out there, I am putting a book together where I talk to approximately 20 families across the UK about their own journeys through anorexia and you know what?

Life before ED...

I have a huge purple concertina file box by the side of my desk which has been gathering dust for the past four years. It contains a mountain of historical research I was doing, and had been doing for four or five years, which stopped - dead - when Ben's eating disorder arrived on the scene.

This rough intro sums up what my next book is about...

Here is my first and very rough draft introduction for my next book: When anorexia came to visit: Families talk about how eating disorders invaded their lives. So, if you're interested in knowing what this new book is about, the following pretty much sums it up. (It's still a draft and I need to check my facts and sources, but it'll give you a good idea.)