A remarkable personal insight into female body image, spirituality and the defiance of cultural expectations.Joanna Jepson was born with a facial deformity that led to her being mercilessly bullied through childhood and adolescence whilst a strict evangelical upbringing imposed further challenges. Reconstructive facial surgery and a religious meltdown left her unrecognizable and disorientated, and triggered a search for identity and belonging. After ordination, a spell in the cloisters of a Welsh convent and a burst of headline-hitting fame in relation to the cleft palate abortions in the news a few years ago, Joanna became the first Chaplain to the London College of Fashion, with unique opportunities to explore the world of self-image. Not just an autobiography, A Lot Like Eve exposes the cultural idols and preoccupations that hook so many women into trying to prove that they are worthwhile in the way that the world expects. Like the first (metaphorical) woman, Eve, we too are still trying to pretend that we are wonderfully adorned by our own kind of fig-leaves.

In the beginning...Prologue1 The Insiders2 Baptism3 Exile4 Angels and Demons5 Good News Crusaders6 Tongues7 Revival8 Poisoned Pens9 The First Leaf10 Not God's: Mine11 Kafir and Caliphates12 Laying Out the Bodies13 Alastair14 About Face15 Undoing16 Hot Worship Leaders and Godly Wives17 At Home in a Stable18 Fish Out of Water19 Napkins, Nails and Piercings20 Saved through Childbirth21 Turned Tables22 Captain Sensible23 Hippy Chick and Punk Boy24 The Time of Your Life25 Tractors and Silence26 Stealth Nettle Farming27 Ground E 28 Valentine Message29 St Bob, Patron Saint of Curates30 Thursday Morning Crem Rota31 A Holy Place in the World32 Nuns' Tea PartyEpilogueAcknowledgements