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The Borough Press
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
Published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Copyright © Louisa Young 2018
Cover photographs © Margie Hurwich/Arcangel Images, © Shutterstock.com
Cover design by Claire Ward © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018
Louisa Young asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library
This book is a work of non-fiction based on the author’s experiences. In order to protect privacy, names, identifying characteristics and details have been changed.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008265205
Ebook Edition © June 2018 ISBN: 9780008265199
Version: 2019-01-28
‘Rich and moving and beautifully written’
The Times
‘Spectacular. I can’t stop thinking about it. Louisa Young is a beautiful, beautiful writer . . . an unflinching honesty that feels like a great gift to the reader’
Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love
‘Beautiful . . . sobering . . . at heart, an old-fashioned love story’
Daily Mail
‘An extraordinarily candid bereavement memoir . . . As much as it’s an overwhelming love letter, Young’s book is also a sobering reminder of the devastating effects of alcoholism, not just on an individual’s life, but on everyone else around them’
Evening Standard
‘The most riveting, heartbreaking book I’ve ever read about addiction, but above all about the nature of love. Already one of my books of the year’
Linda Grant
‘As honest as the morning after and the best account of loving against all sense since Penelope Mortimer’s The Pumpkin Eater’
Patrick Gale
‘I’m still fucking crying. And it’s such a great work of art. I wish I’d read it before I worked as a drug and alcohol counsellor’
Philippa Perry
‘Oh my God, it’s so beautiful, and heartbreaking, and true’
Sam Baker, The Pool
‘An important book, one that demands we rethink a culture of blame around alcoholism’
Daily Express
‘I inhaled You Left Early like crystal meth from a red-hot pipe . . . a beautiful compelling book and a galloping read too’
Rachel Johnson
‘An extraordinarily powerful and moving work . . . [a] beautiful book which I devoured in two sittings. Amazing’
Emma Thompson
‘Brilliant: generous and clear-sighted and deeply poignant’
Reverend Richard Coles
‘I am upset, astonished, compelled, grateful. The sheer work of loving comes through . . . Quite brilliant’
Suzanne Moore
‘Anyone who has known a great love will get this book. Sexy and intellectual. I was very moved’
Monique Roffey
‘If the greatest act of devotion is to conjure the dead beloved in all their vivid, imperfect, mesmerising humanity, then Louisa Young’s book is a memorial to equal the Taj Mahal . . . Anyone who has ever loved an addict will recognise . . . what she has to say’
Rowan Pelling, iNews
‘Compulsively and painfully readable – beautifully written and enormously sad’
Lissa Evans, author of Crooked Heart
For everyone who has found themselves here
Inversion of Intervals:
Major becomes Minor.
Perfect stays Perfect.
Augmented becomes Diminished.
from Robert Lockhart’s
music theory notebook
1969
Contents
Copyright
Praise for You Left Early
Dedication
Epigraph
Introduction: The Book You Hold in Your Hand
Part One 1959–2002
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Part Two 2003–05
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve