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Wendy Parkins had just hit a career milestone when she lost control, gripped by depression and a debilitating phobia and OCD which convinced her everything she touched was contaminated.
A shift to the UK to pursue her academic career in Victorian literature led to an intense fear of everything from door handles, to raw meat, to the air inside a bus.
Struggling to find therapy that helped, she started writing as a way to process her frustration ... which eventually turned into her memoir, called Every morning, so far, I'm alive.
Wendy Parkins is also a writer of Victorian-style novels, the first of which is out today.
The Defiance of Frances Dickinson is based on a true story of a women who braved public disgrace to gain control over her own life in ther 19th century.
Wendy speaks to Kathryn from her home in Dunedin.
