Butterfly on a Pin A memoir of love, despair and reinvention

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'Raw and real and funny and sad – I could not put this book down' – Jane Kennedy

'You might expect fluff and fashion ... what you get is harrowing, full-strength, funny and deeply satisfying' – Zoë Foster Blake

Unflinching, funny, shocking, inspiring and tender: this is a story like no other.

Alannah Hill, one of Australia’s most successful fashion designers, created an international fashion brand that defied trends with ornamental, sophisticated elegance, beads, bows and vintage florals. But growing up in a milk bar in Tasmania, Alannah’s childhood was one of hardship, fear and abuse. At an early age she ran away from home with eight suitcases of costumes and a fierce determination to succeed, haunted by her mother’s refrain of ‘You’ll never amount to anything, you can’t sew, nobody likes you and you’re going to end up in a shallow grave, dear!’
 
At the height of her success, Alannah walked the razor’s edge between two identities – the ‘good’ Alannah and the ‘mongrel bastard’ Alannah. Who was the real Alannah Hill? Reprieve came in the form of a baby boy and the realisation that becoming a mother not only changes your life, but completely refurbishes it, forever.
 
Yet 'having it all' turned out to be another illusion. In 2013 Alannah walked away from her eponymous brand, a departure that left her coming apart at the seams. She slowly came to understand the only way she could move forward was to go back. At the heart of it all was her mother, whose loveless marriage and disappointment in life had a powerful and long-lasting effect on her daughter. It was finally time to call a truce with the past.   
 
This extraordinary book is the fierce and intelligent account of how a freckle-faced teenage runaway metamorphosed into a trailblazer and true original.

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ISBN:

9781743794258

Format:

Paperback

Pages:

352

Dimensions:

23cm x 15cm

Weight:

500g

RRP:

$32.99

Category:

Biography and Memoir , Fashion and Beauty

Publisher:

Hardie Grant Books

Published:

01 May 2018

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alannah Hill

Alannah Hill is an iconic designer, bestselling author and sought-after public speaker. For seventeen years she was the creative director of the trailblazing brand she founded, Alannah Hill. In 2015 she left and launched her own label, Louise Love. Alannah's memoir, Butterfly on a Pin, was released to critical acclaim in 2018 and is followed by The Handbag of Happiness, a rollicking and irreverent collection of real-life stories, in November

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