Adrian Scarlett is the author and creator behind Bye Bye Fatman — an honest, ongoing account of losing weight, regaining it, and trying again, told without the tidy ending. Alongside the memoir, he's written a second memoir on family and belonging in Zambia, and a growing shelf of children's books for younger readers.

He's also an experienced international educator of more than three decades, and the founder of Verity Education, a separate curriculum-resource imprint for schools. Here, though, this is the personal work: the story, the family, and the books that came out of actually living it.