Sedbergh Festival of Books & Drama 2009

There’s Monica who speaks for herself, fond of sex and food, only one of which really satisfies her, Carol who finds her own special way to self-esteem and Veronica who sheds more than weight when she loses four stones. There’s Trish and Jeannie, both in school uniform for very different reasons and Marie who has an unusual approach to shopping. There’s Denise, a child-mother, who finds herself unexpectedly metamorphosing into a state of bliss and Sandy, a child ashamed of her fat mother, convinced that she is fated to become a perfect replica.

There are fat girls, large females, big girls, big women everywhere across Britain, overlooked, mocked and despised. Their strategies for survival can be inspired, funny or desperate but survive they do. In these stories their inventiveness is celebrated, their sadness acknowledged and a challenge thrown out to each of us to examine our tendency to judge the book by its cover.