This extraordinary book is the fierce and intelligent account of how a freckle-faced teenage runaway metamorphosed into a trailblazer and true original.

 Jane Kennedy (Kennedy and Molloy MMM, Author and Chef)

 'Raw and real and funny and sad – I could not put this book down' You might expect fluff and fashion ... what you get is harrowing, full-strength, funny and deeply satisfying

 Zoë Foster Blake (Author, founder of GoTo Skin Care)

'Unflinching, funny, shocking, inspiring and tender: this is a story like no other'

BOOKTOPIA

'Not since singer Marianne Faithfull published her bestselling, no-holds barred biography, has a high profile woman's memoir had the power to move us to laughter and tears as Butterfly on a Pin, the remarkable memoir of Australian designer Alannah Hill. Butterfly on a Pin is empowering, entertaining, and insightful'

Alannah Hill, is one of Australia’s most successful fashion designers. Alannah created an international fashion brand that defied trends with ornamental, sophisticated elegance, beads, bows and vintage florals But growing up in a milk bar in Tasmania, Alannah’s childhood was one of hardship, trauma and abuse. At an early age she ran away from home with eight suitcases of costumes and a fierce determination to succeed, haunted by her mother’s refrain of ‘You’ll never amount to anything, you can’t sew, nobody likes you and you’re going to end up in a shallow grave, dear!’

At the height of her success, Alannah walked the razor’s edge between two identities – the ‘good’ Alannah and the ‘mongrel bastard’ 
 
 In 2013 Alannah walked away from her eponymous brand, a departure that left her coming apart at the seams and questioning her hi jacked identity.

Alannah slowly came to understand, that the only way she could move forward, was to go back. At the heart of it all was her mother, whose loveless marriage and chronic disappointment in life had a powerful and long-lasting effect on her daughter. 

It was time for Alannah to call a truce with the past.