// BBC HEALTH NEWS — SALUTE
'I was heading for a breakdown, then books saved my life'
Kit de Waal said reading "saved my life" after a turbulent youth left her close to a serious breakdown
International bestselling author Kit de Waal has told the BBC how a chance conversation changed her life after she left home at 16, struggled with drugs and found herself on the brink of a serious mental breakdown.
The Birmingham-born writer said she was "a couple of months away from a very serious breakdown" before a solicitor's reading recommendation changed the course of her life.
Speaking to BBC Upload, she said: "I found the world of reading, the world of imagination.
Born in Birmingham to an Irish mother and a Caribbean father, de Waal grew up in Moseley at a time when mixed-race families were rare.
"My father came over from the Caribbean in 1956 and my mother is an Irish immigrant," she said.
The My Name Is Leon author said books opened up "the world of imagination" and inspired her writing career
The family lived on the edge of a predominantly middle-class area, but de Waal said her childhood was marked by poverty.
"We were very, very poor. I was brought up in poverty, there's no other way about it."
She said those experiences later became central to her writing.