Illuminated : Autism & All the Things I’Ve Left Unsaid Hardback

The impactful and empowering memoir from Melanie Sykes Melanie Sykes has been a face on our screens, a voice on our radios for nearly thirty years.

As a presenter and broadcaster people turned to her for her humour, her honesty and insight.

But between all the interviews and chat shows, is a life unseen, a story unsaid. Her journey – from up north to down south, from Manchester to LA and via London, Paris and India, and through the eye of the storm of celebrity culture is a rollercoaster ride.

Sex, drugs and rock and roll, certainly, but also brass bands and ice cream vans, broken hearts and healing adventures – a search not for fame but for freedom. Her autism diagnosis in midlife has supercharged that journey – and means this isn’t a story just of breakdown, but of breakthrough.

Funny, furious and gloriously frank, this is a book that lifts the lid on being a woman in the media, navigating relationships, and being a neurodivergent person speaking up in a neurotypical world.

Illuminated is Melanie, in her own inimitable voice.