Delicacy: A memoir about cake and death

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A book that has the rare quality of being both poetic and accessible . . . missing Delicacy would be a huge mistake.’– Guardian Food was my way of controlling time. Not eating was a way of attempting time travel. Every time I refused food, I was investing in my future self, a better me. Conversely, every time I binged, I was fixed on the past, because bingeing is always a message from a past self about trauma. Not eating is a rebellion against a grown-up body and a grown-up world. If binge-eating could speak, it wouldn’t have a future tense.

Brimming with graceful, charming writing - this book perfectly encapsulates so many moments we face as girls and women and I only wish I'd read it sooner' - Kiri Pritchard-McLean Writing on a fan forum, one said: “I cried so hard. I’m devastated! Mary has been my favourite from the start. I’m so sad.” I have often wondered if the last book you read is important. I remember the last book I read to my dad [....] The last book you read before you die is like the type of coin that gets put under your tongue for Charon. It is mental substance for your journey, something to remember as you go on your way" (p.206). She played Phoebe in Tom Basden's stage comedy Party and its subsequent three series spin-off on BBC Radio 4 also called Party. Wix wrote and co-starred in the same station's comedy series Bird Island, which also featured Reece Shearsmith, Julian Rhind-Tutt and Alison Steadman.A stunning book in which darkness and light, tragedy and humour, pain and hope are all masterfully, affectingly balanced' - Liam Williams The language of pain isn’t helpful. The placement of pain, on a scale from one to ten, relies on having been in pain before. Brilliantly original, funny and insightful. Dry and comic, but also very moving. I absolutely loved Delicacy‘ – Katy Brand Caragh Medlicott: I watched the YouTube interviews you did to go along with the book and heard you say that reading other people’s memoirs sometimes jogged your own memory, and that reading other people’s stories in general was more enriching than self-help books. It made me think of a quote from Kazuo Ishiguro: “In the end, stories are about one person saying to another: This is the way it feels to me. […] Does it feel this way to you?” — I wondered, how much did you think about the reader when you were writing? Was there anything you hoped people would take from it?

When Mum went out to work, she would leave crisps and sandwiches for us. My dad and I would meet in the kitchen once we were both able to stand. We would politely ask each other which flavour crisp the other preferred, or report something funny the dog had done. After a few weeks, we began going on small walks down the road. When we reached the house with the stone toads, he was out of breath and had to lean on a telegraph pole. “I’m sorry,” he kept saying. But I wasn’t sure if he meant sorry about not being able to walk any further, or sorry for driving the car that day. We talked about how to not get piles when you’re on strong painkillers. And whenever I laughed, my broken sternum filled with pain and he would wince, as if the pain was his, too. We began to talk about what happened. He couldn’t remember anything about the crash and I remembered everything. He told me about who his favourite artists were when he was in his 20s, and how he was worried his mind wasn’t as good since the crash and that he couldn’t remember much about his father any more, who died when he was young. I told him about how difficult I had found life since university. He told me how insecure he was at having left school early without many qualifications. On the final walk, he asked for my forgiveness. Then everything was quiet and still, except the white powder from the air bags hovering above the dashboard, and an immense heat in my chest. We had come to a stop in the middle of a dual carriageway. “I’m dead,” was my first thought. “I’ve died at 25. I had such potential and now I’m dead. I’ll never go on a panel show and I’ll never fall in love. I’ve died.” I looked down at my body. There was no blood, but I could taste some in my mouth. I looked over at my dad. He was slumped in his seat, not moving, eyes closed. I’d remembered from watching Casualty that you should repeat the person’s first name to keep them conscious. So rather than use “Dad”, I began to yell his name to try and wake him. When the paramedics arrived, on hearing this, they asked if he was my partner and then I died for real, of embarrassment. I also have an idea for another book, a novel, but I am still intimidated by the idea of narrative. At the moment I have three protagonists, with three timelines, so that I can chop it up. We’ll see where it goes. Finally, I have an idea for a film script set in Wales — I want it to be about female desire and longing. From BBC3’s In my Skin written by Kayleigh Llewellyn In just under two years, writer and actor Katy Wix lost her best friend and both her parents in a devastatingly short amount of time. This heartbreaking experience became formative in the writing of her acclaimed memoir, Delicacy . Recounting Wix’s experience growing up in Cardiff, the incubation of body image issues, as well as the aftermath of her profound bereavement, Delicacy provides a deep-dive into grief and emotional vulnerability. Caragh Medlicott caught up with Katy over Zoom to discuss writing, grief and diet culture. In Delicacy’s first story, Wix remembers being reluctantly coaxed into cycling while on a family holiday in France, aged eleven. Explaining her discomfort, Wix writes:She was burned at the stake on the grounds of Button House, implying she worked there as a servant. Heartbreaking, ridiculously clever and laugh out loud funny. One of the best books on trauma I’ve ever read’

Jones, Alice (15 April 2021). "Katy Wix on comedy, cake and death: 'I just wanted to scream at people' ". inews.co.uk . Retrieved 31 December 2022. In 2007, Wix joined the cast of sitcom Not Going Out as recurring character Daisy and then went on to be a regular from Series 3 until her final appearance in the 2015 Christmas special. [7] In Torchwood: Children of Earth she plays Rhiannon Davies, the sister of Ianto Jones. [8] In 2010, she presented the BBC Three series The King Is Dead. She made guest appearances on the BBC shows Horrible Histories, Outnumbered (2010) and Absolutely Fabulous (2011).Whatever the reason Katy Wix decided to leave the show, it’s clear her character will be hugely missed! How did fans react to Katy Wix leaving the role of Mary? Caragh Medlicott: I was thinking the other day about those little souvenir magnets you can buy, the kind mums love, where they say stuff like “I’m watching my weight — but it’s not going anywhere!”. It’s a joke, but also it points to the longevity of it — of how it’s taken as given that women are always dieting.