Victoria Vanstone is the creator and host of the hugely popular Sober Awkward podcast. Her new memoir A Thousand Wasted Sundays is an unashamedly warts and all look at modern day drinking culture, its impact on mental health and one mothers journey into freeing herself from the grip of socially normalised binge drinking.
Victoria grew up in 1980s England in a happy home full of laughter, booze and a disturbing amount of fancy-dress parties. From her youthful days downing cheap wine at the local park to dodging disastrous relationships and a messy run-in with a firework, her reliable mate alcohol was never far from reach.
Throughout her 20s she travelled the world, sought refuge in booze, endured a slew of one-night-stands and several holiday romances. Among these dalliances she recalls details of a Thai boyfriend she thought had died in the Tsunami, a guitarist with a soft-rock mullet, a flat capped Canadian, a sweet Japanese boy, a geezer from London and a Romanian man with ‘teeth like abandoned beach huts.’
Eventually, Victoria found herself in Australia with a husband and a child on the way. After sobering up for her first pregnancy, becoming a boring, bottom-wiping, cleaning machine meant she soon returned to her binge-drinking ways, and had to grapple anew with the habits and beliefs that had gone unchecked since childhood.
Incredibly funny and highly relatable, A Thousand Wasted Sundays is for anyone that has ever had a close encounter of the drinking kind.
Victoria says, ‘The book is about love, for myself and my family. Owning my story and being proud of who I am, no matter my errors. It’s also about dispelling shame and embracing what we perceive as ‘boring’.’
About Victoria Vanstone
Victoria Vanstone is the host of Sober Awkward – A popular comedy podcast about two ex-party animals navigating parenting and socialising without their old buddy booze. She’s also a blogger www.drunkmummysobermummy.com and the CEO of www.cuppa.community, the free social network for the sober and sober curious.
Victoria started writing on the day she gave up alcohol and became a renowned over-sharer on her blog drunkmummysobermummy.com.
The reformed 'party girl' is now on a mission to help others stuck in a pattern of normalised social binge drinking via the podcast she co-hosts (Sober Awkward), which tracks two former party animals as they navigate life without booze. Originally from Reading in the UK, Victoria now lives on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland with her brood of uncontrollable children, a rather confused dog, and a very patient husband.
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