Author(s): Barbara Else

NZ Non Fiction | Biography & Autobiography

'My own first memory is the cupboard door, and laughing, erupting with laughter' - a memoir about finding an identity, a voice and laughter.

A funny, elegant, moving memoir by one of New Zealand's best-known authors, a woman who finally rebelled against being a handmaiden. By the time Barbara Else was in her forties, she was married to a globally recognised academic physician, had two beautiful teenage daughters and a house in Karori. Gradually she realised her husband didn't want her to have a career of her own or do anything outside his orbit. He refused to acknowledge there was a problem. In the end, the man who became her second husband offered a way out. It was a huge risk. But she fled, with a laundry basket of oddments, two suitcases, and her little Mac Plus and dot matrix printer.

The result was best-selling books and literary honours. With her trademark wit and humour, Barbara describes her transformation from a shy but stubborn child into a fulfilled and successful adult.

She is just as funny writing about the New Zealand publishing scene and the triumphs and disasters of life as an author and editor.