Everyone believes that Michelle is a committed vegetarian, but every day the reality is different.

It is just a normal day in the life of Michelle Brunson. The doorbell rings just as the dinner is about to finish cooking in the oven. Her husband Jack answers the door to let his mother and father in, whom they have invited for their usual Sunday lunch. Michelle can’t help but feel pleased with herself. Just as she does every Sunday she has produced another fabulous vegetarian feast: lentil soup for starters, followed by nut roast with a dazzling array of vegetables and rice, and rounded off with soya ice cream. Her meat-eating parents-in-law compliment her on the tastiness of the meal. Little does anyone realise that Michelle is secretly wishing for a nice joint of lamb.

Michelle and Jack met 10 years ago in a bookshop just after she had moved to London. She was instantly attracted to this man with the green eyes and dark hair. Jack told her over coffee that he and his friends were animal rights protesters, who would go on marches and campaign outside burger restaurants. She was horrified by some of the tales of animal cruelty that she heard. When the waitress came to take their food order she found herself saying: “I’ll have a veggie burger.” Jack was delighted and when they eventually became engaged he confessed that he could never have gone out with anyone who ate meat.

At first giving up meat was easy. Michelle was in love and food took a back seat anyway. Her life became a busy whirl of marches and protest meetings with Jack, but one day as she stood with her petition outside a burger bar she suddenly had the urge to go inside and order the biggest burger on the menu. “I knew that Jack and my new friends would be disgusted, so I kept my urge to myself.” A year later when Jack and Michelle married they had a vegetarian meal on the menu, which everyone loved, even Michelle’s parents who adore eating meat. When she became pregnant her cravings for meat began in earnest. She wanted hamburger and fries. After three months she couldn’t bear it any longer. Although she told Jack she was visiting a friend, instead she drove to the nearest burger restaurant.

As she ordered a burger and fries she felt like a criminal. “As soon as I got home I rushed to the bathroom to clean my teeth”. But now she had started eating meat again she couldn’t stop, even after her baby son was born. She describes how she is now hooked on her visits to burger bars; it is like having a love affair - with meat.

Her visits occur twice a week when she pretends to be visiting a friend or going on a shopping trip. Despite feeling guilty and a hypocrite for denying her son the chance to eat meat - he has a purely vegetarian diet - she will carry on. “Yesterday Jack took our son on his first protest march. I said I couldn’t go because I felt ill, but I’d never felt better. I was 20 miles away in a burger bar.”