A lot of that sounds genuine. It's hard enough to get a job in a pub kitchen on potwash without being expected to do stupid arse hours and put up with all sorts of bollocks from the chefs - been there. They're twats. It wouldn't have been doable with a very small child unless the other parent or a family member was prepared to have the kid all night at varying times, every weekend, bank holiday, special Sunday, etc, etc. And the level of banging out twenty grand on a course immediately excludes the sort of people the existing writers, chefs, critics and suchlike don't want contaminating their nice, cozy bubbles - women, poor people, ethnic minorities. Even the person she's talking to is suggesting that she got the money from a redundancy payment. And could presumably afford to live at the same time, buy tools, knives, ingredients, home facilities, etc, which means she had access to in excess of thirty grand in the bank. I've only ever qualified for redundancy once. Three and a half grand, which went on paying the bills until the first salary went in from the next job - no enrolling on the course I'd always wanted to do whilst there were bills to be paid.
There are huge barriers to women and minorities entering catering if you're not looking for a dinner lady position or can set your own up. And like it or not, her birth name is foreign, which does make a difference to people - plus, it is a very pretty name, so that conjures up associations of a little blonde girl and therefore assumed to be unlikely to cope in difficult situations. So misogyny and racism is believable in terms of CVs. I have omitted my middle name because of classist assumptions about it, too.
I don't see it being an issue if she chose to use her birth name again. I think it would be a perfectly reasonable and understandable thing to do and might be (if she decides it is right for her) good for helping her make peace with her past. I don't think it would make a difference to have A Girl Named Jack by Mellissa Hadjicostas written on the cover, for example.
She's not comfortable in her own skin. She needs to be. Not looking for identity from the people at The Groucho, not looking for ways in which fundamentally exclusionary groups would then embrace her as belonging. Not looking for labels. That'll give her the inner calm that would allow her to get her tit together and perform.
Even now, I'm suspicious of what these new people are. PR types are all very able to come across as your Best Friend in the world Forever. It's literally their job to do so. They are turned out from the same mould which brought us David Cameron and many, many other politicians and SpAds. They're the people who sold the idea of fat, healthy, happy babies on formula in countries where there is no access to clean, safe water and the cost of formula meant women would water it down to make it go further. PR types sold the idea of disability being a failing in moral fibre. PR types sold the idea that Monsanto and GM/weedkillers/pesticides/etc were the answer to world hunger. It's a job where The Brand is more important than anything else. Including people who trusted them.
