Aster to publish Gray's follow-up to Unexpected Joy of Being Sober

Aster, part of the Octopus Publishing Group, has acquired Sunshine Warm Sober, the second sobriety book from Catherine Gray.

The imprint published Gray's first book,The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober, in 2017. According to the publisher, the title "led the new wave of sobriety publishing by chronicling her descent into alcoholism and her route to sobriety (and its joys)."

Gray has now been sober for eight years and Sunshine Warm Sober will capture the experience of maintaining sobriety in the long term. It is described as part-memoir, part-reportage and is aimed at both the "sober-curious" as well as those who have been sober for some time. 

Stephanie Jackson, publishing director, acquired world English language rights from Rachel Mills at the Rachel Mills Literary agency.  Publication is scheduled for 10th June 2021. 

Jackson said: "Inspiring, open and encouraging, Catherine Gray has become the trusted voice of the sober movement, providing support, solace and serious motivation as she shares her own story, campaigns for awareness and interrogates the facts, fallacies and experts in the field. Whatever your relationship with alcohol, Cath’s humour, humanity and honesty are hugely engaging – and her fresh insights will change the way you think about drinking, and feel."

Gray said: “I’m thrilled to be working with Octopus again on this sequel. My readers often find it fairly easy to put together short sober spells, but growing sobriety that sticks eludes them. This is because it’s about so much more than putting down the drink. It’s about bigger life changes; setting boundaries, recognising drinking triggers (some are utterly unexpected, like sunshine, procrastination, illness and PMT), digging around in dark spots from our childhood, and building healthy relationships.

"The alcohol-free movement shows no signs of abating, despite some newspaper reports claiming that Dry January was ‘cancelled’ and anticipation of a boozy bacchanalia in June that will rival the roaring twenties. People-driven data disagrees. Google trends data shows that over the past 12 months in the UK, interest in sobriety has risen by 150%. Searches for ‘how to get sober’ peaked in June, August, September and November 2020 and (more predictably) in January 2021.

"This book goes way beyond just the alcohol and encompasses everything new I’ve learnt since 2017. I can’t wait to share it with you all."

Gray is also the author of The Unexpected Joy of the Ordinary (Aster, 2019) and The Unexpected Joy of Being Single (Aster, 2018).