The FastDay Forum

In today's Stella magazine (which comes with the Sunday Telegraph) there is a frank article by Lionel Shriver, author of 'We must talk about Kevin', on the subject of her, and society's, obsession with food and weight.

She is not a 5:2er but she has fasted in the past:

behind closed doors I was constantly losing and then seizing control. Binges on bagels would be followed by fasts - first of three days, then four, then five, a week. In my early thirties I did two fasts of 21 days apiece. We're not talking juice fasts or 500-calorie-per-day fasts, either; all I consumed was coffee and herbal tea. Do not try this at home.

So now she eats one meal a day - dinner, and at that meal she eats what she likes...

The regimen is a surprisingly successful attempt to impose my [adolescent] innocence.

Wow 21 day fast!!

I've read it, and also another article about her a while ago (one of those ones where they track what you do and eat during the day; day on the life kind of thing). She runs every day and eats very little; I concluded from the article that she has anorexic tendencies. Might be wrong, that's just my feeling.

Yes Rosieposie I think she has a potentially unhealthy relationship to food, and that is the point of the article. But she reckons by extension that most of us have. And she is certainly not recommending those long fasts BTW...

I loved her book, it was really compelling and thought provoking. I found it impossible to decide if Kevin was innately evil (no child is born evil, surely?) or if the mother's tortuous relationship with him had caused his murderous behaviour. So cleverly done, I still can't decide. I read some of her other books but found them rather disappointing. I have heard her being interviewed on radio 4 and she is a highly articulate and interesting speaker. Hope she has a few more good books to write!

Hi dhana, I confess I haven't tried the book despite it being recommended by my OH (and others) - sounds too depressing...

Here is the article that my original post referred to (I will edit it and put it there too).

As you will read, she has just written a new book 'Big Brother', not unrelated to the fact that she lost her own brother to problems related to his obesity. Perhaps you can read it when it is out and let me know whether I could risk trying it?...

At age 15, she changed her name from Margaret Ann to Lionel because she did not like the name she had been given, and as a tomboy felt that a conventionally male name fitted her better

Issue City, Arizona

What an insightful article. She really has a way of getting to the heart of the matter doesn't she? I can't wait for her new book and I will certainly post my critique