Welcome to Litsy!

There was a time when I loved my mother. It�s shocking to imply that I stopped loving my mum because mothers always love their children and always do their best for them. Mothers are supposed to be good. But my mother wasn�t good. Ten years ago, Helen Naylor discovered her mother, Elinor, had been faking debilitating illnesses for thirty years. After Elinor�s self-induced death, Helen found her diaries, which Elinor wrote daily for over fifty years. The diaries reveal not only the inner workings of Elinor�s twisted mind and self-delusion, but also shocking revelations about Helen�s childhood. Everything Helen knew about herself and her upbringing was founded on a lie. The unexplained accidents and days spent entirely on her own as a little girl, imagining herself climbing into the loft and disappearing into a different world, tell a story of neglect. As a teenager, her mother�s advice to Helen on her body and mental health speaks of dangerous manipulation. With Elinor�s behaviour becoming increasingly destructive, and Helen now herself a mother, she was left with a stark choice: to collude with Elinor�s lies or be accused of abandoning her. My Mother, Munchausen�s and Me is a heart-breaking, honest and brave account of a daughter unravelling the truth about her mother and herself. It�s a story of a stolen childhood, mental illness, and the redemptive power of breaking a complex and toxic bond.