Girl in the dark

'Oh, what can I not do, in my dreams. In my dreams I travel on trains and climb mountains, I play concerts and swim rivers, I carry important documents on vital missions, I attend meetings which become song-and-dance routines. My body lies boxed in darkness, but beneath my closed eyelids there is colour, sound and movement, in glorious contrast to the day; mad movies projected nightly in the private theatre of my skull.'

Anna Lyndsey was living a normal life. She enjoyed her job; she was ambitious; she was falling in love. Then the unthinkable happened.

It began with a burning sensation on her face when she was exposed to computer screens and fluorescent lighting. Then the burning spread and the problematic light sources proliferated. Now her extreme sensitivity to light in all forms means she must spend much of her life in total darkness.

During the best times, she can venture cautiously outside at dusk and dawn, avoiding high-strength streetlamps. During the worst, she must spend months in a darkened room, listening to audiobooks, inventing word-games and fighting to keep despair at bay.

Told with great beauty, humour and honesty, Girl in the Dark is the astonishing and uplifting account of Anna's descent into the depths of her extraordinary illness. It is the story of how, through her determination to make her impossible life possible and with the love of those around her, she has managed to find light in even the darkest of places.

“An extraordinary memoir of horror, endurance, resourcefulness and despair. It is also a love story – because without her boyfriend (now husband) Pete, it is impossible to see how Lyndsey would have survived … Girl in the Dark is beautifully written. The author's intelligence shines on every page, and her will to survive (despite those black thoughts in her dark room) is inspiring” –  Daily Mail

“This sounds like the subject of a novel, but it is the all-too-real predicament of the author, who, except for infrequent periods of remission when she can tolerate dawn and dusk, has to spend whole seasons confined to a completely dark room … Hers is a dreadful situation captured with unexpected grace, and Lyndsey is also able to laugh at the practically unthinkable restrictions imposed on her. Her prose has some lovely wording … such personification of the illness also clearly demonstrates Lyndsey's determination, and that her true allies – above all her admirable husband – in their fight against it. A deeply sobering memoir that, despite everything, strikes an encouraging and uplifting tone” –  The Lady

“Girl in the Dark is a stunning debut from Anna Lyndsey about an unimaginably horrible disease” –  Literary Review

“Lyndsey prises open all these emotions with effortless, matter-of-fact clarity, without ever letting Girl in the Dark trip over into misery memoir territory. In fact, her chronicle of a life without light somehow sparkles with dark humour and wonder at the world … Beautifully affecting'” –  Observer

“Beautifully written … Her honesty and determination to remain upbeat in the face of adversity are deeply affecting. A moving and uplifting listen” –  Psychologies

“She began to write about her illness. She wrote haltingly in the complete darkness, in a bound notebook, using her left thumb as a marker to guide her hand … lyrical, funny and uplifting” –  Daily Mail

“Remarkable” –  The Lady

“In lyrical, melancholy prose, she describes the limits of her days, listening to audiobooks, inventing word games and dreaming of sunshine while clinging onto a slim chance of recovery” –  Sunday Express