Coming Clean

My name is Liz, and I am the partner of an alcoholic.

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.

About the Author

Liz Fraser is a writer and broadcaster on all aspects of modern family life. The author of five books, she has written for the Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, Grazia, Glamour, Marie Claire, Red and Runner's World among others and appears frequently on TV and radio. She has a psychology degree from Cambridge University and speaks openly about her struggles with various mental health issues.

Liz has four children spanning twenty years, and lives in Oxford.