‘‘Today, life has its ups and downs but with a winning combination of inner strength and love, I find myself eagerly embracing every day of my life. The show must and will go on!’’" In February 1988 a young Irish girl married a Turkish man in London on a student visa, after a friend of his had been deported. He was violent, abusive and sadistic. She, bulimic since the age of twelve, was full of self-loathing and desperate to change her body shape at any cost. He fuelled her eating disorder by denying her food, making love conditional on her becoming thin. So began a marriage in which beatings, starvation, rape and verbal abuse were her daily fare. They moved to Istanbul in 1991 and the downward spiral gathered momentum. Finally, pregnant, she found the courage to flee to London, but lost the baby. This remarkable story tells how she fought her way back to love and happiness.