Sophie Hardcastle is an artist, author and all-around adventurous soul from Sydney Australia.

She shot to fame when she published her first book - Running Like China, a memoir of a life interrupted by madness.

It chronicles her struggle with coming to terms with her own mental illness and life with a brain that operates differently than others.

Her second book is a young adult novel called Breathing Underwater.

Sophie is also an exceptionally talented artist, currently studying at Sydney College of Art - and she’s just been awarded a $100,000 scholarship to continue her studies for a year at Oxford University.

She’s a remarkable, thoughtful, funny, and strikingly smart young woman and I’m so happy she came around to share her story with me this week.

You can follow her on Instagram sophie_hardcastle, let her know you heard her on the show.

A trigger warning up top - we do discuss self-harm in this episode so about twenty minutes after we start the interview you’ll hear us talking about the northern beaches - if you skip forward until you hear me talking about my hearing damage, you’ll have emerged safely on the other side.

Come enjoy a cup of coffee around my beautiful Parker Table, in the super-comfy Eames chairs - with Sophie Hardcastle.

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