Entertainer and national treasure Wendy Harmer tells all in her frank, fearless and funny memoir, Lies My Mirror Told Me.
I just had this incredible epiphany. It was like, 'hang on a minute: you mean, I get a microphone, the lights come on me, people listen to what I have to say and I get paid!' There was no going back.
Wendy Harmer has had an extraordinary life.
From being born with a severe facial deformity, to performing as a stand-up comedian, a national television host and then going on to be the highest paid woman in the cut-throat world of Sydney FM radio ... her tale of overcoming adversity is told with her trademark frankness and celebrated wit.
Starting life in rural Victoria, with a teacher father and teenage mother, Wendy describes her time in remote one-teacher, one-room country schools. A way of life which has all but disappeared. As her father moved around the state to take up new postings as headmaster, Wendy, as the 'funny looking' kid often in the wrong colour school uniform, developed strategies to find new friends and fit in.
Her young mother found life particularly difficult and left the family home at the age of 26 when Wendy was ten, the oldest of four children, leaving her father to raise them on his own.
It wasn't until Wendy was well into her teens that she had the final reconstructive facial surgery that had long promised to transform her from a 'witch' into a 'princess', but fell agonisingly short.
Somehow, despite her initial setbacks and emotional turmoil, Wendy showed the strength of character to carve her own way in the world. Today her face and her name are recognised by millions of Australians.
Wendy began her working life as a journalist on the Geelong Advertiser and then worked for the Melbourne Sun, where, on assignment, she stumbled across the alternative comedy and cabaret scene in the early '80s and her life took an improbable turn.
From her first tentative steps on Melbourne's tiny stages in comedy revue, she struck out as a solo performer. As our first woman stand-up comedian, she would make her mark in London and at the Edinburgh Festival before coming home to entertain us for the past four decades on stage, in print, television and broadcasting.
Wendy's career includes many 'firsts'. Notably as the host of The Big Gig on ABC TV and as a headliner in FM radio. She is also known as a prolific magazine, newspaper columnist and best-selling author.
In Lies My Mirror Told Me Wendy reflects on her life in one of the most unlikely success stories you will ever read.
