Everything I Know About Love - Dolly Alderton

© Evening Standard

I read this book before we had the idea for this website, when I was feeling a little dull and listless, and needed a pick-me-up. I sat down on a rainy morning, snuggled up on my sofa, and began to read. Three hours and an emotional rollercoaster later, I finished the book feeling (as cheesy as this sounds) like a new woman. I felt immensely comforted, emotionally purged, and full to the brim of love for my friends - and what's more - for myself. As the front cover suggests, the book doesn't only discuss everything the fabulous Dolly Alderton knows about love, but also discusses her past experiences with parties, dates, friends, jobs, and life in general. It is an all-encompassing, tirelessly witty memoir of a 29 year-old woman that somehow manages to illustrate her own journey of self-reflexivity, yet simultaneously has the capacity to make the reader self-reflect, too. Whether this is a result of me belonging to the same generation (making her memories of MSN all too relatable), or simply the warm, amiable tone she uses throughout, Alderton makes the reader forget that this is a stranger writing a book, but instead feel as if this is a tête-à-tête with an old friend.

Dolly Alderton has undoubtedly managed to take an unbiased look at her life without (too much) doubt or regret, to accept her past mistakes and be able to laugh about them, to criticise herself and acknowledge where she was right or wrong, and most importantly, to look at herself and see what is truly there. A feat which typically takes people their whole life - if that - Alderton effectively achieves this in her mere 29 years. Self knowledge and an acceptance of oneself is a concept lost on most young women and men, in their twenties, despite being a hugely important one. I personally have many doubts about the effectiveness and trustworthiness of 'self help' literature, yet this book - without any pretence on the author's part - manages to penetrate into the anxieties of young people living in a world where they feel increasingly lost, and make them feel like they are not alone. 

If you are looking for a high brow novel about society, history, culture or politics, this most likely won't fit the bill. But if you are looking for an uplifting, heartwarming story of a woman learning, through the ups and downs, to love not only herself, but all those around her, then this is the perfect book.