JACK UNFILTERED MONROE

I’m Jack Monroe. For the last decade, I’ve been writing publicly about my life one day, one triumph, one catastrophe, one impulsive or drastic decision at a time. Sometimes in a flurry of late-night tweets, sometimes in national newspaper columns, sometimes in drafted, half-finished blog posts that are too raw and too vulnerable to hit the publish button. If you’re aware of my work, either in the cookery world or the political chattersphere or the infamous landmark libel trial, you’ll probably have an opinion on me. I’m not naïve enough to think that it’ll automatically be a largely positive one; goodness knows not even I think favourably about myself much of the time. Much of what has been written about me in the last 10 years has been through the filter of someone else’s byline or agenda, misquotes and sneers and fascination with the oddity that doesn’t seem to quite fit in any convenient pigeonhole.

Around 18 months ago, I was offered a presenting gig on a daytime TV cookery show, Daily Kitchen Live, a spinoff of the very successful Saturday Kitchen. And from the moment it was announced, my life as I knew it was thrown into absolute turmoil. An obsessive core of anti-fans trolled and abused me online 24 hours a day. To date, over a quarter of a million messages obsessing about my weight, my childcare arrangements, my finances, my adenoids, whether >>> >>> my home is a bungalow or not and the configuration of the staircase, harassing my employers, my corporate partners, my sponsors, my agent and anyone unlucky enough to be linked