Alcohol is a depressant masquerading remarkably well as a relaxant, an Oscar-winning actor that had me fooled for years." The campaign for the book will be supported by a series of live events producedin collaboration with production company Fane, which will be publicly announced in early February.

One day we had to lie down on a giant piece of paper and let someone draw an outline around our bodies with a marker. Then we had an hour to fill in said outline, in a way that represented how we were feeling. As I painted my body with glitter, purely because it looked nice, I wondered if I was taking part in an elaborate con. But nothing was as it seemed on the surface in rehab. There was a deeper reason for everything. I was told that the glitter perhaps showed a person who was keen to hide their true self behind a sparkly front. ‘That’s way too obvious,’ I laughed, secretly annoyed that I was so obvious.” Choosing to change any harmful behavior requires an intense desire to do so. It is also deeply personal and does not look the same or follow the same rules and guidelines for every person. I appreciate books written by people who are authentic and honest, with life experience, Bryony is an earnest writer, I could hear it in the emotion of her voice when she was narrating her book on Audible.I knew, almost immediately, that me and booze did not get on as we should. But its power to briefly make me feel ‘normal’ was too strong, and so I stuffed this knowledge down beyond several layers of denial. Life was easier that way, until it wasn’t. I have loved Bryony Gordon’s writing ever since ‘Mad Girl’ - the first time I’d ever seen the symptoms of Pure OCD put into mainstream public consciousness.

Bryony Gordon is a terrific, compassionate writer whose razor-sharp honesty slices through every sentence of this compelling memoir.' Liz Day But in the end, after two decades of drinking myself into the oblivion I craved, I realised it was going to be easier to admit I was an alcoholic. Me! An alcoholic? Yes. This memoir isn't reflective of my story, but like most books about alcohol prove, it could easily have been. Reading it reaffirmed my decision to go alcohol-free (16 months and counting! ✨) and whether you're sober, sober curious or think you'll never be THAT person who needs to give up the sauce forever, I urge you to read this book. But the problem was that I had no idea how to live without alcohol, no sure confidence that there was life beyond booze. It was only the intervention of a sober friend, who took me to some Twelve Step meetings, that allowed me to see the possibility of a life without alcohol, one day at a time. I met other people like me. I saw that I had an illness, and a pretty common one at that. I took myself to rehab. It was hard beyond belief. But I reminded myself that it was no harder than the alternative, which was losing everything.

I guess I'm left with thinking who is this for? Clearly addicts or alcoholics won't be reading this type of book, or probably any, they have other things to be doing with their time, as the book makes clear. Those in recovery hopefully will have their own programme, sponsors, mentors etc. who can more actively support their recovery journey. Perhaps for those impacted by addiction will get the most out of it, gain an understanding from the other side. Living with an addict in your life is so tough I hope this book offers some comfort. My drinking structured my whole week. If I had an important work meeting on a Tuesday, that meant I couldn’t drink on Monday, which meant I had to drink on Sunday. If I had a party on Wednesday, that meant I couldn’t schedule in any important work on Thursday. And so on. Known for her trademark honesty, Bryony relives the darkest and most terrifying moments of her addiction, never shying away from the fact that alcoholism robs you of your ability to focus on your family, your work, your health, your children, yourself. And then, a chink of light as the hard work begins – rehab; AA meetings; endless, tedious, painful self-reflection – a roller-coaster ride through self-acceptance, friendship, love and hope, to a joy and pride in staying sober that her younger self could never have imagined. We need to be more comfortable talking about incredibly uncomfortable behaviours and symptoms.Bryony does a fantastic job of extending out a hand and saying ‘I’ve been there.’ I wanted to shake everyone, ‘DRINK’ I wanted to shout, “you’re allowed to drink so why aren’t you drinking properly!’”

The truth is, I decided to stop drinking because if I didn’t, I was going to die. I was going to die either by accident – falling off a balcony or down a flight of stairs or choking on my own vomit. Or I was going to die on purpose, by actively making the decision to kill myself. Or – absolutely worst of all – I was going to die very slowly, by living in only the most literal of senses, my so-called life tiny and toxic, a Groundhog Day of misery and anxiety. I stopped drinking because I wanted to start living.Bryony’s voice becoming nearly hysterical throughout the narration was a bit much, not because it was gratuitous but simply because her high pitched, highly dramatic delivery was unpleasant to my ears. Bryony Gordon is a terrific, compassionate writer whose razor-sharp honesty slices through every sentence of this compelling memoir.’ Liz Day Bryony Gordon is a respected journalist, a number-one bestselling author and an award-winning mental health campaigner. She is also an alcoholic. It is when she contrives to invite a near-stranger to her house for drink and drugs while her young daughter is sleeping upstairs, that she realises she needs help. She can no longer abide by the meagre boundaries she has set for herself. With the support of her husband, family and friends, she undergoes a rehabilitation programme and, through the book, she takes us through that process. It's a fascinating, revealing, moving and compelling account.

In my mind, it conjured up images of vagrants on park benches, of the destitute and the desperate, and I was none of these things. Well. I was only one of these things: desperate. But I couldn’t be an alcoholic, I just couldn’t, because my career was thriving and I had a house and a mortgage and a husband and a child and I had written books and run marathons and I had even recently interviewed Prince Harryabout his mental health. Me! An alcoholic? No.The key? She’s not afraid to delve into topics of shame, pain or disgust which plague most people with mental illnesses and addiction. Until mainstream society realises that “mental health awareness” cannot be sanitised and palatable, no real awareness will ever be achieved. It's not an easy read, and there were times the author's self-doubt really wore on me, but it's SO REAL. And so relatable, whether you're an addict or not. It's not a story of never drinking again and life being magically perfect. It's a story of an addict's struggles and triumphs, and how the wins often look like absolutely ordinary moments.