Coronet to publish Sober Mummy's diaries

Coronet has acquired The Sober Diaries, a "brave, honest and at times hilarious" account of how one mother gave up drinking.

The book by blogger Clare Pooley is the "personal and frank" story of her first year without alcohol. Coronet publisher Charlotte Hardman agreed a world English rights deal with Annette Green at Annette Green Authors’ Agency. The book will publish in January 2018.

When Pooley realised she had a problem in 2015 - putting away at least a bottle of wine a day as a stay-at-home mum, after years immersed in the drink-fuelled culture of advertising - she quit drinking and began her blog under the pseudonym Sober Mummy to find support. The blog hit over a million page views and the group’s members formed a huge but close support network for one another.

Pooley, who was later diagnosed with breast cancer, is today is booze- and cancer-free, two stone lighter, and more energetic, according to Coronet, adding: "She is the mother she could never have been on a bottle of wine a day".

Hardman said: “Many women will recognise something of themselves in Clare’s story and I think what she has to say about the journey she went on in her first year of living a sober lifestyle will make people stop and think. In The Sober Diaries, Clare shares advice and wisdom acquired during her enlightening year and it is upbeat, funny and – above all – about trying to live life to the full. It is an important story to be told and I am thrilled to be publishing it.”

Pooley said for her being alcohol free meant "properly living life, experiencing all its ups and downs in glorious technicolour".

“I wrote this book because many of the readers of my blog asked me to," she said. "There is a huge stigma around the issue of alcohol and, as a result, women are really scared of admitting that they need to give up. In a world where everyone drinks it’s impossible to imagine that life sober is ever going to be fun and rewarding. I wanted to show that this isn’t the case. Being alcohol free means properly living life, experiencing all its ups and downs in glorious technicolour.”