EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVE- Dolly Alderton

EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVE: an incredibly personal and honest memoir written by Dolly. I use Dolly as opposed to Alderton as I would usually do because you can’t help but feel a more personal connection- it felt like we were friends and Dolly was retelling stories over a glass of wine. Admirably she ‘bares all’ (in more than one sense) in this genuine and hilarious book that outlines everything she has learnt around love as she has grown up.

Dolly takes you on a journey, candidly telling stories of disastrous dates, wild nights out and better still heart-warming and incredibly moving tales of friendship. She shares what she has learnt not just about romantic love but also, young love, lost love and love within friendships. This makes it remarkably fresh as it’s a much more realistic approach to exploring love- it makes for a much more interesting and relatable book as opposed to a diary of dating mishaps. The book, aimed at millennials, is incredibly relatable and at times cringe-worthy as Dolly makes cultural references to dial-up internet connections, hours using MSN and the website Bebo- she definitely had me nodding along to some of her stories! To my great relief she manages to strike the perfect balance between hilarity without being obtrusive and heart-breaking without being whiney or drenching her accounts with self-pity. This made it so much more of a fun read as it felt more easy-going and her tongue-in-cheek writing style makes it so much more accessible as she doesn’t take herself too seriously. Whilst there are more moving moments of heartbreak, depression, privilege and deception throughout the book, this is balanced perfectly with the tales of hilarity such as terrible Rod Stewart themed house parties and lists that are all too accurate. This journey of self-reflection ends beautifully where Dolly has moments of realisation and draws many conclusions about love. The only criticism of the book is the somewhat heavy references to drug use. Whilst understandably it is a part of her life and would be wrong to omit reference to it in a memoir, I did feel at times it overpowered some of the stories that had deeper meaning and were worthy enough to tell without too much emphasis on drugs. With that said, overall it was a fantastic read, that I would highly recommend. 

Rating: 4/5