AT 25, Bridget McNulty had just moved from her hometown of Durban to Cape Town to start her first job, as features writer at Real Simple magazine. After four years spent studying creative writing in the US on a scholarship at liberal arts college Franklin & Marshall, she’d written a magical realism novel (Strange Nervous Laughter) while working at Durban’s Bayside Gallery, and had it published. Her future was at her feet.
Once in Cape Town, however, she suddenly began losing weight rapidly: ‘I wasn’t trying, I wasn’t even exercising. I thought yay, the universe likes me! I was very thin, very thirsty and very hungry – for my birthday dinner I had a burger and chips, then got home and made two slices of toast. I was also constantly tired, but so were the women I worked with, mostly moms with young kids,
