Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol

Author(s): Ann Dowsett Johnston

Addiction | Society & Culture | Women's Health

The new face of risky drinking is female. But what is behind the rise in alcohol consumption and abuse among women in recent years?


Eight years ago, Ann Dowsett Johnston was an award-winning journalist and vice-principal of McGill University. In private though, she was wrestling the demon that had undone her own mother, the same demon that increasing numbers of women are now battling across the world: alcohol. Aware of her growing dependency, Ann began to document her experiences with drink - the rules she set and inevitably broke, and the terrible consequences. Interweaving the moving story of her own addiction with the stories of other women facing the same struggle, along with in-depth research and interviews with leading academics and researchers, Dowsett Johnston illuminates a startling epidemic. From the 17-year-old heart attack victim to the mother of a child with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, she creates an alarming composite of the female face of dangerous drinking.


In this startlingly honest book, Ann Dowsett Johnson reveals why the relationship between women and alcohol has spiralled out of control. Showing how women can escape from this destructive affair, Drink is essential reading for any woman who thinks she has a problem, and for those who care about her.


Product Information

"wallop of a book... full of riveting candor...Johnston brings the weight of her journalism and academic experience to build a convincing case that women are increasingly succumbing to the dark side of alcohol"--Washington Post

Winner of five National Magazine Awards, a Southam Fellowship and the Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy (2011), Ann Dowsett Johnston is a gifted writer, editor and public speaker. Most recently, as Atkinson Fellow in Public Policy, she wrote an 11-part series on Women and Alcohol, appearing in 'The Toronto Star'. Ann grew up in northern Ontario, rural South Africa and Toronto. A graduate of Queen's University, she lives in Toronto.

General Fields

  • : 9780732296407
  • : HarperCollins Publishers Australia
  • : HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd
  • : June 2013
  • : Australia
  • : September 2013
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Ann Dowsett Johnston
  • : Paperback
  • : 913
  • : English
  • : 362.292
  • : 288