About the Author

Anthony John Leigh was born at the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne on 4 September 1969. His natural father left soon after. His mother, his step-father and the adults around them belonged to the sect led by Anne Hamilton-Byrne, known in Australia as The Family. She claimed to be his godmother.

When Anthony was about four, his mother left. He grew up moving between Australia and England, between two fathers, and between houses that never became homes. By twelve he was looking after his younger half-brother, and quietly finding his own ways to cope.

“When I was very young, I discovered the greatness of the written word.”

Reading became one escape. Drugs became another. For more than half his life he self-medicated, from prescription pills and cannabis to speed and heroin, while living with chronic back pain and the weight of everything he had seen.

Now I Can Get My New Tattoo is his account of all of it, written as a recovering poly-substance abuser who believes recovery is a rebirth, and that healing has to come from within. The image on the cover is his own.