Product Description

A tour of one woman's life with alcohol, and why she decided to give it up. Our relationship with alcohol is the longest most of us will ever have, and the most intense, though few of us will ever admit it. It is blamed for the rise in street violence, and women's increased consumption of it is the cause of relentless moral panic, but it also provides the main route to sexual experience, and to experimentation with drugs, something that policy-makers are reluctant to admit. Tania Glyde explores the reasons why she drank in the first place, why she carried on doing it - and found it the most effective 'gateway drug' ever - and the long slow car-crash of life events that finally convinced her to give it up. Through her own story, she looks at why women are drinking more, suggests that they may be kidding themselves, and explains what it's like to break the national taboo and live without alcohol.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #256356 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Nicholas Lezard, Evening Standard
'What sets this book apart from other similar memoirs is that it is not only very well written, it's actually useful, both for the sober and not-so-sober. 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'

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!