Dolly Alderton's Everything I Know About Love

(REPOST FROM WITHINHERWORDS.CO.UK)

What is it?

Everything I Know About Love is the energetic and zesty autobiography by journalist and presenter of The High Low podcast, Dolly Alderton.

What is it about?

Everything I Know About Love follows Dolly’s dating epiphanies from her teenage years until turning thirty. Alderton honestly and hilariously recounts her dating horror-stories, her tongue-and-cheek flawed advice and a few sporadic dating-related food recipes to overcome even the toughest of break ups.

How did it make me feel?

I laughed a lot. I felt warmed, encouraged, comforted, understood. Like wearing a good pair of slippers or drinking far too many gins.

We are often made to feel lost and clueless in the world of dating. The older you get, the more you become terrifyingly aware that you have no idea what you’re doing and it’s oddly enjoyable to find out that most people seem to be in the same boat. Not quite sinking but often flailing awkwardly against one tide or another.

Everything I Know About Love (2018)

Let’s play a game you might be familiar with. Never have I Ever. Never have I ever been the messy extroverted friend in her early twenties who’d drink far too much and jump in a taxi in the search of a questionable afterparty with people she’d just met. Cheers. Never have I ever associated alcohol with a complete loss of inhibitions and a gain of unshakable, sky-rocketing confidence. Slainte. Never have I ever spent a romantic night with a boy in a hotel room having very intense, meaningful conversations about his father who was – to quote Alderton - the ‘last of the colonizers’ and wrote a book about a rare type of fish he discovered on his travels. Ok, so his dad might have been emotionally manipulative, and the book was a painfully mediocre EP but we move. Prost. Never have I ever been guru-ed. I haven’t. Read the book. Have you?

In between the laughter and Mac and Cheese recipes, there’s some serious heartfelt feelings regarding Alderton’s relationship with food, her friendships, loss of a loved one and learning to understand your own vulnerabilities. Ultimately, none of us really know what we’re doing. We’re just flailing around trying not to step on too many toes in the process. But now, thanks to Alderton, I know very little about love has really got anything to do with dating.

Where is it available?

In our new weird quarantined life, a plethora of local independent bookshops are doing home deliveries! Have a look for your local and let me know what you think.

Anything else?

Throwing a Rod Stewart-themed party is unsurprisingly a failure. Read the book.

L x