Product Description

Imagine not drinking a bottle of wine before making a pass; not moving in like a starving cat when someone is at the bar; not apologising for something you don’t remember doing. Once upon a time, Tania Glyde couldn’t imagine living any other way. She wondered whether she had a problem, but so many people drank more and as a clock-watching 6pm-er who hardly ever threw up in public, by general standards she was fine – despite the constant hangover and the bottle of vodka stashed in her handbag. At the end of a 23-year love affair with alcohol, Tania Glyde remembers her inner white wine witch. Exposing the culpability of the drinks industry, the enabling qualities of Class As and our powerful sense of entitlement to drink until we fall over, Cleaning Up examines a moral panic of our time, exploring why women drink, how to stop and what life after alcohol is really like.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #133045 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
"'What sets this book apart [is that] it is illuminating about the inner emotional damage that leads to wildly self-destructive behaviour; and also about the society that allows such behaviour to flourish... pretty much unputdownable' Nicholas Lezard, Evening Standard 'Insightful... the points raised are important... timely' Guardian 'Eminently practical and personal... one to recommend' John Sutherland, Financial Times 'Depicts with bravery and a blazingly defiant wit an ongoing struggle... [Glyde] puts her experience into the context of a culture that deems alcohol inseparable from fun' Metro"

Metro
'Depicts with bravery and a blazingly defiant wit an ongoing struggle... Glyde provides more than a harrowing account... she explores why women drink and puts her experience into the context of a culture that deems alcohol inseparable from fun'

Attitude
`A frank book, sometimes disarmingly so, and will worry many readers who may have a sneaking suspicion they drink a bit too much'

Customer Reviews

A great book
I dont understand all this negative feedback and/or comments! I really loved this book, I found it moving and touching, funny and interesting. Tania Glyde is a very under-rated writer and observer, and this very personal book is a great piece of work.

An Amazing Story
I've known Tania since her sober years and her story came as a revelation to me. It was hard to believe that the confident, amazing woman I know was once so emotionally distraught and unhappy. This isn't your usual misery memory but the story of a woman who fell into drinking as a child licking the liquor off her parent's glasses and then moved later on to vodka and Class A's. There's a bit of social commentary too but not so much as to be boring. Tania has a very conversational writing style and her voice really comes through. I read it over a couple of days and then went back and reread passages. And if anyone thinks the NHS is taking alcohol abuse seriously, Tania's book proves otherwise!

getting out alive!
This book is brilliantly written by a superb writer. She has grasped the nettle of her addiction and laid it all out with often, scary honesty.
This is certainly not flim-flam or does it kow-tow to the highly dubious (if you examine it) self-help movement, it is a chronicle of someone who came through under her own steam. This is to be respected and indeed, admired. This book does not glorify addiction in any way, neither does it offer pat answers, it is both laugh-out-loud funny and awfully sad.
Well done!