Butterfly on a Pin: A memoir of love, despair and reinvention

One of five children from a poverty-stricken and abusive home in rural Australia, Alannah Hill ran away from home at the age fifteen to reinvent herself as one of the country's most successful fashion designers.

Alannah fell in love, and then couldnt fall out of love; she teased her hair to cover her fear, and travelled to Tokyo, Paris, New York, and London as her fashion career started to take off. She toured with U2 and BB King, acted in the cult movie Dogs in Space, and built a fashion empire with her iconic brand, Alannah Hill. At the height of her success she also became a mother.

But it slowly began to unravel, stitch by carefully crafted stitch. With a cancer scare, the death of her mother, an acrimonious split with her business partner and the crushing end of her association with the fashion label that bears her name, Alannah found herself at rock bottom. She knew a serious reinvention was once again required and she steeled herself to revisit a past shed buried decades earlier.

Alannah bares her soul in this brilliant memoir. Hilarious and heartbreaking, Butterfly on a Pin is not only the story of her rocky road to success, but a fiercely intelligent and funny tale of overcoming adversity and daring to dream. See more