‘I’m the binge-drinking health reporter. During the week, I
write about Australia’s booze-soaked culture. At the weekends, I write
myself off.’

Booze had dominated Jill Stark’s social life ever since she had her
first sip of beer, at 13. She thought nothing could curb her love of big
nights. And then came the hangover that changed everything. In the
shadow of her 35th year, Jill made a decision: she would give up
alcohol. But what would it mean to stop drinking in a world awash with
booze?

This lively memoir charts Jill’s tumultuous year on the wagon, as she
copes with the stress of the newsroom sober, tackles the dating scene
on soda water, learns to watch the footy minus beer, and deals with
censure from friends and colleagues, who tell her that a year without
booze is ‘a year with no mates’.

In re-examining her habits, Jill also explores Australia’s love
affair with alcohol, meeting alcopop-swigging teens who drink to fit in,
beer-swilling blokes in a sporting culture backed by booze, and
marketing bigwigs blamed for turning binge drinking into a way of life.
And she tracks the history of this national obsession: from the idea
that Australia’s new colonies were drowning in drink to the Anzac ethos
that a beer builds mateship, and from the six o’clock swill that
encouraged bingeing to the tangled weave of advertising, social
pressure, and tradition that confronts drinkers today.

Will Jill make it through the year without booze? And if she
does, will she go back to her old habits, or has she called last drinks?
This is a funny, moving, and insightful exploration of why we drink,
how we got here, and what happens when we turn off the tap.