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With special thanks
to Mymedia
This edition first published in 2018
Unbound
6th Floor Mutual House, 70 Conduit Street, London W1S 2GF
www.unbound.com
All rights reserved
Text © Amy Charlotte Kean, 2018
Illustrations © J. Milton, 2018
The right of Amy Charlotte Kean to be identified as the author
of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988. No part of this publication may be copied,
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form
or by any means without the prior permission of the publisher, nor be
otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in
which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed
on the subsequent purchaser.
Text Design by Carrdesignstudio.com
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78352-645-1 (trade hbk)
ISBN 978-1-78352-644-4 (ebook)
ISBN 978-1-78352-646-8 (limited edition)
Printed in Great Britain by xxx
To Bethan, Sophie and Cecily.
I wrote this book for you (which according to Father
Christmas is worth at least three Christmas presents).
Remember: be brave, be yourself, and let other women be
themselves, too. That’s the important bit. Even the darkest
nights brighten when the stars hold each other’s hands.
Lots of love from your Aunty Amy xxx
Dear Reader,
The book you are holding came about in a rather different way to most others. It was
funded directly by readers through a new website: Unbound. Unbound is the creation
of three writers. We started the company because we believed there had to be a better
deal for both writers and readers. On the Unbound website, authors share the ideas
for the books they want to write directly with readers. If enough of you support
the book by pledging for it in advance, we produce a beautifully bound special
subscribers’ edition and distribute a regular edition and ebook wherever books are
sold, in shops and online.
This new way of publishing is actually a very old idea (Samuel Johnson funded his
dictionary this way). We’re just using the internet to build each writer a network of
patrons. At the back of this book, you’ll find the names of all the people who made it
happen.
Publishing in this way means readers are no longer just passive consumers of the
books they buy, and authors are free to write the books they really want. They get
a much fairer return too – half the profits their books generate, rather than a tiny
percentage of the cover price.
If you’re not yet a subscriber, we hope that you’ll want to join our publishing
revolution and have your name listed in one of our books in the future. To get you
started, here is a £5 discount on your first pledge. Just visit unbound.com, make your
pledge and type zero5 in the promo code box when you check out.
Thank you for your support,
Dan, Justin and John
Founders, Unbound
Some days, the world was
meant to change.
Your thoughts go bang, your
eyes turn strange
Like a magnificently coloured
kaleidoscope lens,
No matter the hows and the whys
or the whens
As the mountains have peaks and the
seas have their waves,
Some days you just know you were
born to be brave.
Elodie-Rose was a girl on a mission
In a town where girls act like obedient
kittens,
Sing soft the same tune and dance neat
the same jigs,
Wear the same flowery dresses
and pretty blonde wigs.
But Elodie-Rose vowed to change
this old world
Because Elodie-Rose isn’t like
other girls.
In this town, each morning’s the same as before.
Girls wake up and wash, take their socks from the floor,
Eat breakfast, brush teeth, make the messy old bed,
Pack their lunchbox with snacks for the long day ahead,
Jump quick through the Lego, the dolls and toy trucks,
Open the wardrobe, grab their basket of fucks.
Wait: ‘What are fucks?’ you might suddenly cry
As you halt to attention and rub your wide eyes!
Well,
