The Wrong Knickers - A Decade of Chaos

The Wrong Knickers - A Decade of Chaos by Bryony Gordon

Published by Headline

1st January 2015

Paperback Edition

 

 

Bryony Gordon survived her adolescence by dreaming about the life she'd have in her twenties: the perfect job; the lovely flat; the amazing boyfriend. The reality was something of a shock. Her Telegraph column was a diary of her daily screw-ups; she lived in a series of squalid shoe boxes; and her most meaningful relationship of the entire decade was with a Marlboro Light.

Here in THE WRONG KNICKERS Bryony busts open the glamorized myth of what it means to be a young (perpetually) single girl about London town, and shares the horrible and hilarious truth. The truth about picking up a colleague at the STI clinic; sinking into debt to fund a varied diet of wine, crisps and vodka; and how it feels when your dream man turns out to be a one night stand who hands you someone else's knickers in the morning.

Bryony's wonderfully ridiculous and ultimately redemptive story is essential reading for everyone whose 'best years' weren't quite what they were expecting...

I finished The Wrong Knickers yesterday, and was exhausted by it.  I thought my twenties was manic - university, holding down two, sometimes three part-time jobs and partying like it was 1999 every weekend where I could but Bryony Gordon takes it all to another level. 

Bryony's problem, and one that was an issue for many a child born of the 70s and particularly 80s is that they were the 'want-it-all' generation.  You could have everything you wanted, just put it on any of the plastic cards in your wallet and the dream was yours for the taking.  When Bryony decides that the time has come to move out of the family home, getting the perfect flat in London - on a budget she can actually afford - proves harder than she first thought.  Yes, she has a glamourous job as a journalist but it's not actually well paid, and all of her money seems to be going on take-aways, alcohol and drugs.  Who mentioned that you need to save for electricity, water and council tax?!

Could I have written anything so honest myself, if I was Bryony?  I doubt it.  This is certainly a no-holds bar book about her life.  Men who want to snort cocaine off of her breasts, an affair with a married man who only wants her for sex, and the most disastrous account of going to Glastonbury that couldn't fail to put anyone off of going.

If you didn't do it back then, live through it with Bryony.  If you did have your own decade of chaos, recollect all those heady days, and chortle as you reminisce.  Or like me, read and think, blimey, and I thought my twenties was chaotic....

Happy Reading

Miss Chapter x