From the Publisher
Dolly Alderton has always been a sparkling Roman candle of talent. She is funny, smart, and explosively engaged in the wonders and weirdness of the world. But what makes this memoir more than mere entertainment is the mature and sophisticated evolution that Alderton describes in these pages. It’s a beautifully told journey and a thoughtful, important book. I loved it.” — Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love and City of Girls
“Hilarious and moving. Alderton is Nora Ephron for the millennial generation.” — Elizabeth Day, author of How to Fail and The Party
“Dolly Alderton is one of the foremost "it" writers of our time. Her sexy and tender debut, Everything I Know About Love is a one-sitting book, it is a break-up recovery book, it is a honey, what can I help you with tonight book, it is a this is what your lover should make you feel book. Whatever ails you, Alderton can fix it with her intimate wisdom... There is no writer quite like Dolly Alderton working today and very soon the world will know it.” — Lisa Taddeo, author of #1 New York Times bestseller Three Women
“Dolly Alderton is one of Britain’s best-known millennial writers….[with] the trusted voice of a close friend.” — New York Times
“Steeped in furiously funny accounts of one-night stands, ill-advised late-night taxi journeys up the M1, grubby flat-shares and the beauty of female friendships, as Alderton joyfully booze-cruises her way through her twenties.” — Metro
“Poignant, witty, comic, and self-deprecating. A laugh-out-loud, lightning quick journey through the years that will resonate with anyone who’s ever been young and in love.” — Daily Express (London)
“[A]ssuredly self-aware and reflective.” — Library Journal
“I loved it so much, I wanted it to go on forever, Dolly Alderton is so gifted at making people care. A rare talent.” — Marian Keyes
“Alderton is an old soul—she has learned life lessons while not yet out of her twenties that many of us post-menopausal matrons are still struggling with. A wonderful writer, who will surely inspire a generation the way that Caitlin Moran did before her.” — Julie Burchill
“Nora Ephron for the Tinder generation.” — Financial Times
"A Sunday Times columnist draws her coming-of-age story with tender flair... Alderton's portrait exemplifies love. A poignant breath of fresh air for those who struggled—or are struggling—with the dramedy of early adulthood." — Kirkus Reviews
“Dolly Alderton’s voice feels like your very favorite friend.” — Taylor Jenkins Reid, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Carrie Soto is Back, on Good Material
“You would struggle to find someone who flits as effortlessly between waxing poetic about Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World and quoting Rob Reiner’s When Harry Met Sally.” — Variety
“Dolly Alderton is, quite simply, the bard of modern-day love.” — Lena Dunham, on Good Material
"Dolly Alderton is the closest person we have to a modern-day Carrie Bradshaw." — Shondaland, on Good Material
"Dolly Alderton is one of this generation’s preeminent oracles for love, romance, and heartbreak." — Elle, on Good Material
"The writing in Dolly Alderton books is so good it'll have you thinking you're in the midst of one of those amazing, 3-hour-long lunch catch ups with an old friend where you cover all the bases: love, career, and your impending existential crisis. It's painfully relatable and oh-so-compelling." — Brit + Co
New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert
A beautifully told journey and a thoughtful, important book. I loved it.”
BookPage (starred audio review)
Alderton makes for a delightful narrator despite, as she mentions, hating her posh, British boarding school accent. Her wit shines through, especially when narrating an imaginary, over-the-top bachelorette party from hell.”
The Metro (London)
Steeped in furiously funny accounts of one-night stands, ill-advised late-night taxi journeys up the M1, grubby flat-shares, and the beauty of female friendships, as Alderton joyfully booze-cruises her way through her twenties.”
Kirkus Reviews
A Sunday Times columnist draws her coming-of-age story with tender flair…Alderton’s portrait exemplifies love. A poignant breath of fresh air for those who struggled—or are struggling—with the ‘dramedy’ of early adulthood.”
author of The Break Marian Keyes
I loved it so much, I wanted it to go on forever, Dolly Alderton is so gifted at making people care. A rare talent.”
author of Cat Person Kristen Roupenian
Reading this book is like coming home from a bad date and finding the person who knows you best in the world sitting on your couch, ready to pour you a glass of wine and give you a hug.”
author of How to Fail Elizabeth Day
Hilarious and moving. Alderton is Nora Ephron for the millennial generation.”
Daily Express (London)
Poignant, witty, comic, and self-deprecating. A laugh-out-loud, lightning-quick journey through the years that will resonate with anyone who’s ever been young and in love.”
Lisa Taddeo
Dolly Alderton is one of the foremost "it" writers of our time. Her sexy and tender debut, Everything I Know About Love is a one-sitting book, it is a break-up recovery book, it is a honey, what can I help you with tonight book, it is a this is what your lover should make you feel book. Whatever ails you, Alderton can fix it with her intimate wisdom... There is no writer quite like Dolly Alderton working today and very soon the world will know it.
Marian Keyes
I loved it so much, I wanted it to go on forever, Dolly Alderton is so gifted at making people care. A rare talent.
Elizabeth Gilbert
Dolly Alderton has always been a sparkling Roman candle of talent. She is funny, smart, and explosively engaged in the wonders and weirdness of the world. But what makes this memoir more than mere entertainment is the mature and sophisticated evolution that Alderton describes in these pages. It’s a beautifully told journey and a thoughtful, important book. I loved it.
Julie Burchill
Alderton is an old soul—she has learned life lessons while not yet out of her twenties that many of us post-menopausal matrons are still struggling with. A wonderful writer, who will surely inspire a generation the way that Caitlin Moran did before her.
Metro M D
Steeped in furiously funny accounts of one-night stands, ill-advised late-night taxi journeys up the M1, grubby flat-shares and the beauty of female friendships, as Alderton joyfully booze-cruises her way through her twenties.
Elizabeth Day
Hilarious and moving. Alderton is Nora Ephron for the millennial generation.
Financial Times
Nora Ephron for the Tinder generation.
Metro
Steeped in furiously funny accounts of one-night stands, ill-advised late-night taxi journeys up the M1, grubby flat-shares and the beauty of female friendships, as Alderton joyfully booze-cruises her way through her twenties.
Financial Times
Nora Ephron for the Tinder generation.
Daily Express (London)
Poignant, witty, comic, and self-deprecating. A laugh-out-loud, lightning quick journey through the years that will resonate with anyone who’s ever been young and in love.
Metro
Steeped in furiously funny accounts of one-night stands, ill-advised late-night taxi journeys up the M1, grubby flat-shares and the beauty of female friendships, as Alderton joyfully booze-cruises her way through her twenties.
Kirkus Reviews
2019-10-27
A Sunday Times columnist draws her coming-of-age story with tender flair.
"We were the worst type of students imaginable. We were reckless and self-absorbed and childish and violently carefree. We were Broken Britain," writes Alderton, a TV writer and co-host of the podcast The High Low, in this incisive tribute to women's friendships. The collection gathers essays from a variety of eras of her life: her teen years, when she attended an all-girls school, cemented her fascination with boys, and dreamed about being a grown-up ("I was desperate to be an adult"); her chaotic 20s, which proved some of her fantasies wrong; and the dawning of her 30s, when she found some semblance of wisdom. The narrative is also a splendid mashup of recipes ("hangover mac and cheese"), hyperbolic group e-mails mocking the smugness of the coupled and the resentment of singles; and lively recollections on everything from awkward online encounters to body image and blackout drunkenness. Alderton paints British suburbia in hypercolor while drawing herself as a woman who's prone to excess. How her view of love matured is steeped in anxious charm, striking a clever balance between painful humor and self-forgiveness. "Dating had become a source of instant gratification, an extension of narcissism, and nothing to do with connection with another person," she writes. "Time and time again, I had created intensity with a man and confused it with intimacy." But it's the author's relationship with best friend Farly—"there isn't a pebble on the beach of my history that she has left unturned. She knows where to find everything in me and I know where all her stuff is too"—that inspires the most poetic passages. Whether excavating the turmoil of seeing Farly fall in love and get her heart broken, writing about the significance of her support when Farly's sister died, or revisiting the many everyday moments that have made up their 20 years together, Alderton's portrait exemplifies love.
A poignant breath of fresh air for those who struggled—or are struggling—with the dramedy of early adulthood.
