When she was six, her mother became a Jehovah’s Witness.
De Waal left home at 16 after deciding she no longer wanted to follow the faith.
The years that followed were difficult.
“I was wild,” she said. “I took a lot of drugs, drank a lot, did everything you can imagine.”
The deaths of friends from heroin overdoses forced her to confront where her life was heading.
By the age of 21, she said her mental health had deteriorated badly.
“I was really very, very unwell.
“I would say a couple of months away from a very serious breakdown.”
After returning home and finding work with the Crown Prosecution Service, an off-hand comment from a solicitor would prove life-changing.
Seeing her yawn during a meeting, he suggested reading to help with her insomnia.
At the time, de Waal said she disliked books and had never developed a reading habit.
The solicitor gave her a list of 10 novels, including War and Peace and Madame Bovary.
She bought them all.
“I’ve never cured the insomnia,” she said.
“But I have found a world.”
