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2 Jan, 2014

Could you manage a year without booze? – The Independent

If you vow never to drink again after waking up on New Year’s Day morning, chances are you won’t be alone. Whether deciding to have a break from alcohol is a new year’s resolution, a dose of sponsored sobriety courtesy of Alcohol Concern’s Dry January or Cancer Research’s Dryalthlon or simply a case of feeling sick at the thought of imbibing booze after weeks of festive partying, January is the time when taking a break from the bottle doesn’t just seem sensible, it’s almost mandatory.

The idea of paying penance at the start of the year is one that Jill Stark, a Scottish-born and Australia-based health writer, has made her name with in her book High Sobriety: My Year Without Booze, a best-selling memoir that explores her relationship with alcohol, as well as its place in British and Australian life. What started as a challenge to spend three months without a drink turned into a year-long period of abstinence that saw her re-evaluate who she was and why alcohol had become such a large part of life for her and her peers.

Read the rest: Could you manage a year without booze? – The Independent.