Coming Clean

'Raw, unflinching, incredibly brave' - BBC Woman's Hour

'Visceral and gripping' – Amy Liptrot, author of The Outrun

Coming Clean is a searingly honest memoir of loving an alcoholic – both through the heaviest drinking years and into recovery.

When Liz Fraser's partner fell into a catastrophic vortex of depression and alcoholism, Liz found herself in a relentless hailstorm of lies, loneliness, and fear, looking after their young child on her own, heartbroken, mentally shattered, and with no idea what was happening or what to do.

As she and her family moved between Cambridge, Venice, and Oxford, she kept the often shocking truth entirely to herself for a long time, trying in vain to help her partner find a path to sobriety, until she herself finally broke from the trauma and started to speak out – only to find she was one of hundreds experiencing similar things, also living in silence and fear.

Part diary, part travel journal, and part love letter, Coming Clean is the true story of addiction of many kinds, mental collapse, and heartbreak. Above all, it offers a voice of deep human compassion, strength, and hope for recovery.

I hope that in sharing this story it might change the way addiction is talked about and understood from both sides, encourage open, trusting, and supportive dialogue between addicts and those their addiction affects, and provide some solace and help for those who need it – as I did.