Louise O'Neill: My dad raised me to be a warrior, not a princess, and for that, I am forever grateful

From fun-filled days of childhood, to helping her through dark days of anorexia, Louise O’Neill writes how her father has been such an inspirational figure in her life

When I was a child, people (often adults, inappropriately enough) would remark how ‘stern’ my father seemed. It confused me as stern was the last word I would have used to describe him.

The father I knew was funny, making up silly songs to amuse me and my sister, sometimes narrating an entire day in verse. He read stories to us at bedtime, he designed elaborate games of hide and seek for our birthdays, and spent hours hand-making our Halloween costumes, taking an almost child-like delight in crafting angel wings or skeleton suits, in painting our faces with ghoulish grey paint.