Summary of The Sober Diaries: How one woman stopped drinking and started living

The book captures a year of Clare’s life, beginning with the daunting first days of sobriety and following her through the trials, victories, and surprises that followed. What starts as a personal quest to break free from wine-soaked evenings soon evolves into something much bigger. She creates an honest and relatable blog that resonates with thousands, finds her health improving, sheds two stone in weight, and faces one of the greatest battles of her life—breast cancer. Astonishingly, she emerges from the year not only sober but also cancer-free, with her body and spirit transformed.

Threaded through Clare’s candid storytelling is practical advice for anyone questioning their own relationship with alcohol. She tackles the anxieties people have about giving up drinking—how to navigate social events, deal with cravings, respond to friends and family, and even what to expect when your partner continues to drink. Her narrative combines laugh-out-loud humor with moments of heartbreaking honesty, making it clear that sobriety is not just about giving something up but about gaining an entirely new way of living.

More than just a memoir, The Sober Diaries is an empowering handbook for rediscovering life’s richness without alcohol. It celebrates resilience, health, and joy, proving that even when life throws its hardest challenges, it is possible to come out lighter, freer, and happier than ever before.