Product Description

Bill Frost was a talented and highly respected Times journalist. In this heart-rending but intelligent memoir, his sister, Clare Campbell, tells of his struggle with addiction, especially cocaine, his descent into the worst hell imaginable, and his eventual death, mind and body ravaged by drugs, alone in his London flat. Bill died from 'a wasting of the soul' caused by his long-term cocaine addiction and a naive, but dangerous entaglement with the world of drug crime. In this moving book, Clare describes the effect that this has had on herself, her marriage and her family.

This is the definitive story about the effects of addiction and the raw truth that it can affect anyone. Loving Bill as she did, Clare needed to understand why this happened, to delve deeper into her past, and finally, to accept the painful reality that her brother's destiny haunts her own.

This publication includes coverage of the sensational trial earlier in 2007.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #492152 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Review
Haunting, haunted, devastating... a necessary book for all who have been lost and broken by addiction. (Fergal Keane )

About the Author
Clare Campbell is a journalist on the Daily Mail and is married to author Christy Campbell who writes for the Telegraph. She lives in London with her husband, grown up twin daughters and son.

Customer Reviews

gripping book
A gripping book with the fluidity of a thriller and the authenticity of a biography which kept me awake until the small hours to finish it.

Clare Campbell chronicles the drug-fuelled demise of her beloved brother, Bill Frost, and shows that no amount of intelligence and talent - he was a gifted writer and acclaimed war correspondent - confers immunity to addiction.

That a man of such promise and charisma should have fallen prey to alcohol and cocaine was poignant enough; that his judgment became so skewed he ended up befriending characters involved in big-time international drugs crime turns his story into a wider tragedy.

Campbell watches, helpless and distraught, as her brother lurches from one self-destructive crisis to another. He resists all attempts at deflection from his fatal path but there is a very moving passage when Frost does seem to be responding, at the Chaucer Clinic. However, he discharges himself before treatment is complete and squanders his new-found physical and mental health within days.

The author is Frost's one unwaveringly loyal and constant female presence but her portrayal of the women in her brother's life - and he sustained several long-term relationships despite all - is compassionate when it could well have been venal given their treatment of him at certain times.

Neither does she give in to the indulgence of putting her own psychological 'spin' on what might have caused her brother's demons - although she shows that some of the horrific sights he endured in his war reporting days clearly played a part in unleashing them. Instead, she allows him the dignity of speaking for himself, from beyond the grave, in glimpses from the 'life story' he wrote during one of his half-hearted tries at rehabilitation.

I cannot recommend this book too highly. Every teenager should be given a copy as an antidote to the myth that dabbling with cocaine can be a desirable adjunct to a glamorous lifestyle. It imparts its message more effectively and - despite the constraints of its grim subject matter - entertainingly than any official drugs education.

This is a heartbreaking tribute to a much-loved brother; I think Bill Frost would have been very proud of his sister's book.

A good read but not what I expected
This is a true story of the sad decline of a successful journalist. It was written by his sister, also a journalist, after his death.

The ending of the story is in the title, the book covers the journey towards the fateful ending.

The story is told from the perspective of the sister and so I expected it to cover the slow decline of her brother in some detail.

I was a little disappointed when I received the book because it had a bright yellow sticker on the front; "Downfall of a drugs baron - an insider's story". Was this book aimed at a readership interested in real crime stories or the devastating effect of drug addiction told from a personal perspective of someone close to the victim?

The book tries to do both and ends up weakening the writing. I expected a much more detailed description of the slow disintegration drug addiction has on the addict. It would have been better to keep the final outcome, the death of Bill the addict, until the end so the reader is eager to keep reading.

The first part of the book focuses on Bill and his gradual decline and the second half switches focus on the busting of a major crime ring. It doesn't appear as though Bill had anything other than a superficial involvement in the crime ring yet the book leaves things vague and hints that perhaps Bill took some secrets with him when he died.

In my view the author should have either focused on the central character or the crime ring but not both. I would have liked to have known more about Bill and his slow decline and less of the facts of the cocaine crime gang that was eventually busted by a major law enforcement operation.

Out of It by Clare Campbell
Beautifully written and impossible to put down (everyone I know who has the read book finished it within twenty four hours). Powerful and immensely sad, it describes the helplessness, lonliness and isolation of watching someone you love lose everything because of his addiction to cocaine and alcohol. The struggle of both brother and sister trying to fight a losing battle from opposing sides. Highly recommended.