A Thousand Wasted Sundays

by Victoria Vanstone

A hilarious and heartfelt memoir about partying, parenting and sobriety

A party girl with a socially acceptable binge-drinking habit swaps glitter boobs for mum shorts in this hilarious and heartfelt memoir.

Victoria Vanstone grew up in 1980s England in a happy home full of laughter, booze and a disturbing amount of fancy-dress parties. From her youthful days downing cheap wine at the local park to dodging disastrous relationships and a messy run-in with a firework, her reliable mate alcohol was never far from reach.

Eventually, Victoria found herself in Australia with a husband and a child on the way. After sobering up for her first pregnancy, becoming a boring, bottom-wiping, cleaning machine meant she soon returned to her binge-drinking ways, and had to grapple anew with the habits and beliefs that had gone unchecked since childhood.

Can a party girl put down the pint glass for good?

Incredibly funny and highly relatable, A Thousand Wasted Sundays is for anyone that has ever had a close encounter of the drinking kind.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Audiobook, Alcohol

320 pages, Paperback

Published January 30, 2024

About the author

Victoria Vanstone is the host of Sober Awkward, a popular
comedy podcast that tracks two former party animals as they
navigate life without booze. Victoria started writing on the
day she gave up alcohol and became a renowned over-sharer
on her blog drunkmummysobermummy.com. The reformed
‘party girl’ is now on a mission to help others stuck in a
pattern of normalised social binge drinking. Originally from
Reading in the UK, Victoria now lives on the Sunshine Coast
in Queensland with her brood of uncontrollable children, a
rather confused dog, and a very patient husband.
Thousand

Reviews

[Amanda - Mrs B's Book Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

*https://www.instagram.com/mrsb_book_r...

3.5 stars

🍸The host of popular comedy podcast Sober Awkward presents A Thousand Wasted Sundays. This tender, open, frank and connective memoir charts Victoria Vanstone’s battle to overcome a toxic lifestyle of partying and binge drinking, while also dealing with the challenges of motherhood. A mix of both tragic, pointed and funny, this is a touching personal story.

🍸Meet Victoria Vanstone, a woman who was once trapped in an unbreakable cycle of binge drinking and hangxiety. As Victoria grapples with her party girl lifestyle and parenting challenges, we learn about the difficult journey that Victoria faced in trading alcohol for love. Moving from her childhood experiences through to her party girl lifestyle and eventually her life as a parent, Victoria exposes us to every stage of her tumultuous life. This is a calling card for those who may be questioning their relationship with alcohol, or those who want to reflect closely on their drinking habits.

🍸A Thousand Wasted Sundays has an important message to tell, especially for those who have struggled with their relationship with alcohol. It's not a preachy, down your throat style message book, it just subtly tells it as it is and well. I know this book was a bit of a wake-up call and it did force me to reflect on my own experiences of drinking at various points in my life. I will admit to binge drinking as a teen and young adult as an escape from the trauma of my broken family home. I also turned to booze more than a few times after a rough day at work, or in the parenting office. Victoria Vanstone’s experiences validated my own and I feel that I’m not alone in my feelings or actions thanks to the journey of reading this book.

🙏Thank you to @victoriavanstone for opening up an important conversation via this heartfelt memoir. Gratitude to the folks at @panterapress for the opportunity to participate in the tour. Be sure to check out the other tagged accounts in the comments for more thoughts.

[Book Clubber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sex, drugs and alcohol. No, this is not the memoir of a rockstar, although if you opened the book midway and started reading, you'd be forgiven for thinking so. It's the true, sometimes hilarious, often shocking, story of a regular woman – a wife, a mother – whose first foray into boozing began at the tender age of 11 and continued until her time of reckoning almost three decades later. Victoria Vanstone, the creator of the Sober Awkward comedy podcast, doesn't hold back in telling her story. Some might feel she overshares (she apologises to her parents at the end of the book for having to read about the adventures of her vagina), but it's this kind of raw honesty and full transparency that you just know will cut through to readers struggling with similar issues. Here is a woman who grew up in a happy home, but would later find herself resorting to pregnancy as a way to stop drinking.

As serious as her story of partying, parenting and achieving sobriety is, she maintains her humour throughout with plenty of hilarious tales. I read some aloud to my husband, they were too funny not to share.

Overall, a sobering yarn (pun intended) that will strike a chord with anyone who has an unhealthy relationship with alcohol – and great validation for someone like me, who made a life decision as a teenager not to drink.

This book is due for release in February and will do more than entertain readers. Its message is one that is sure to change lives.

[Izzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly eye opening experience.

Pros
- I reflected heavily on my drinking during reading this book. Any memoir/non fiction that makes me think about what I do in life is basically 5 stars.
- I found the child drinking scenes incredibly confronting. I don't know why, I've read some very dark books over my life but that really did that for me.
- I loved the way Vanstone wrote her story. The way she could tell her earlier days without overemphasising the reflection she's done now... It's a talent. She brought it together well at the end.
- I also reflected on my life. As an introvert, in a long term relationship since 16, sometimes I feel like I've missed out on being a party girl. Pretty confident that I would never have been a party girl even if my life went differently but I appreciated learning and reflecting through Vanstone's experiences.

Cons
- I had follow up questions and no one to ask for answers!

Stars: 5/5

[Maureen Vanstone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an incredibly funny book with a powerful message. It made me laugh out loud. I couldn’t put it down. I read the whole thing in one day. Loved it.

[Lesley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate to do this to someone brave enough to tell her story about stopping drinking but this book was just not for me. I listened on Audible and sadly, for me, it just seemed like the author was trying too hard to be funny…….and it just wasn’t. I just couldn’t continue listening. Maybe I should have tried just reading the book. Sorry, but I have to be honest.

[Nik · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanna say congratulations, for your journey, for your sobriety, and for writing this book and sharing your story, a story I can see many in my own life relating to and a story of hope. Thank you and congratulations

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could NOT put it down. I laughed out loud. I felt very sad. And then I understood the journey. Thoroughly honest storytelling at its best.

[Lucie Tunwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished the book, I laughed, I cried, I resonated. It certainly makes you question your relationship with alcohol. Definitely worth a read.

[Aimee Willyeo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this an audio book it made me laugh and cry, parts of it are very relatable if you are sober curious and definitely make you rethink your relationship with alcohol.

[Kelly Hillman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a good biography, especially when it’s funny, self deprecating and entertaining! This book is very relatable in a lot of ways, super easy to read and very inspiring!

[Selena Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious, heart wrenching and raw. Great read for everyone, but highly recommend if you are someone thinking about cutting down or giving up alcohol. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Emma Nettleingham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Decided to read after listening to Vic’s podcast. Absolutely brilliant.

[Sarah Wigmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent laugh out loud read. Highly recommend to anyone questioning their relationship with alcohol.

[Nicola Maher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Victoria takes us on a highly entertaining journey through her wild, adventurous and non conformist life in which her relationship with alcohol plays the lead character. While her story is filled with laughs it also has equal measure of vulnerability in her brave telling of the shadow side of her party girl and binge drinking lifestyle. She gives a sense of the profoundly positive effect that reclaiming her life from alcohol has had on her and those around her. Her brutally open and honest account of her struggle with alcohol and finding the courage to seek help would give hope to anyone questioning their relationship with alcohol.

[Faye Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't put it down! The author is hilarious and so relatable. As someone who also grew up in the UK in the same era and later moved to Australia every page took me down memory lane - in both a good and a bad way. Toe curlingly embarassing at times (in recognition of my own similar drinking escapades) but done with such a rollickingly funny self-deprecating style that it made it feel a lot better about my own skeletons!

Similar to Sober Awkward, the podcast the author co-hosts, this book makes sobriety feel less like a shameful stigmatised way of life and more like a valid and proud choice. I'm a therapist working with people who are alcohol dependent and this is going on my list of recommendations to clients, along with the podcast.

[Paula Mijares · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never got recommended this book. I just found it on the Sydney Dymocks store shelf and got sold with the book blurb and thought ‘hmm this sounds way too close to home, looks like an interesting read. I’m sold!’. Rarely do I just pick up a book off the shelf and give it a go. Glad I did with this one as Victoria’s long and arduous journey through life and sobriety, is scarily relatable. I saw a lot of my thoughts and realisations reading through Victoria realisations why drinking became a problem and needed a change. No kids, this book isn’t a self help book but a honest, relatable, hilarious, slap in the face, get yourself together, go out there and travel and explore, look after yourself type of book.

[Clare Vanstone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. Real. Funny and inspirational.

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not much of a non fiction reader, but this book hooked me in and I finished it within a day. Victoria’s writing style was witty and sincere which really helped me connect with her story.

Told in alternating time periods of before children and after, Victoria takes us through her experiences with alcohol from her childhood and teen years through to when she decides that enough is enough.

Victoria grew up in 1980s England in a loving family where alcohol was at the centre of all the fun times. From her early teens she was sneaking drinks from her parents’ liquor cabinet to share with friends or drinking cheap booze at the local park. Throughout her travelling days and many disastrous hook ups alcohol was always her reliable friend. Upon settling in Australia with her husband and a baby on the way, she quit the drink for her pregnancy, but soon returned to binge drinking to escape the tedium and self doubt of motherhood.

A Thousand Wasted Sundays is a warts and all account of Victoria’s battle with alcohol and coming to understand her motivations for drinking. From low self esteem, loneliness and wanting to be accepted, drinking was her answer to everything. There are many hilarious moments in this book as well as plenty of scenes that I could relate to from my own days of travelling and drinking far too much.

I loved this book and recommend that if you only read one non fiction book this year then make it this one. It’s hopeful, entertaining, thought provoking and relatable.

[Seana Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This really is very funny indeed, although the subject matter is sometimes very serious. It's certainly heartfelt too, and some of it it very sad, especially when Victoria goes to Thailand straight after the tsunami – the hairs on the back of my neck were quivering.

This is Victoria's boozing story - and she really went for it!! It's also her turning life around story, prompted by becoming a mother and suddenly having much bigger consequences than just her own wasted Sundays.

There is so much here, a love story, a trauma story of one abusive boyfriends (and many dingbats.) I loved the bawdy humour and the no holds barred honestly - which I could relate to so much. Love a writer unafraid to describe the mundanity of motherhood too.

I read this over two days and often laughed aloud... but ended so releieved that Vic got her health and life back before she lost everything there was to lose, which was a lot.

[Melissa Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Maria B. Garrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

A light and funny read on a serious topic (alcohol and drug abuse / addiction)!

[Alix · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an avid fan of Victoria’s podcast, ‘Sober Awkward,’ I eagerly anticipated her memoir, ‘A Thousand Wasted Sundays.’ The book did not disappoint!
With her trademark self deprecating wit, Victoria takes us from her early childhood in the UK to adult life and motherhood, chronicling her relationship with alcohol. It’s a warts and all account, peppered with cringeworthy moments. These anecdotes are hilariously narrated but- strip away the humour to unveil a deep seated sadness and self disgust. It is this anxiety and shame which eventually compels Victoria to embark on a new life without alcohol.
Her story is highly relatable- her drinking is well within society’s norms. We drink to celebrate our successes, to grieve our losses, to fill the void of boredom and unfulfilled dreams… Alcohol underpins so much of what we think of as ‘socialising’ in adult life and, unless we are pregnant, we are greeted with confusion and even hostility if we do not conform and partake in its consumption.
I loved the structure of the book. The narrative oscillates between the past to the present until the two converge and this echoes a notion of Victoria’s relationship with alcohol careering to a final climactic rock bottom moment.
I also loved the deliciously nostalgic way that Victoria evokes the UK of the nineties and noughties. She is an accomplished story teller with a gift for conjuring up time and place. I can’t wait to read her next book!

[Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. I wish l had of listened to the sober awkward podcast first though just so l could relate to the character a little more. The book takes you through a journey of emotions from laughing to feeling a sense of sadness and occasional connection with what emotions the writer must have been feeling in that moment. As a reader l couldn't fully relate because l have not shared much of the authors story but non the less the book was a brilliant read. I am one of those people who are curious being without alcohol hence reading books relating to it, but have never yet found one that l can fully relate to suppose l would be described as a "normal drinker" for thise born in the 80's, they all always seem so horrendously bad ie blackouts, vomiting and injuries, drugs and so much more l just havn't experienced such severity. Despite not fully relating to some of the story the book itself is well worth a read and it does raise questions and make you reflect in general be that about yourself or people you have met in your own journey. I would recommend. I would also recommend the sober awkward podcast of you havn't yet it adds so much perspective. From a reader that is curious and is currently very mindful about alcohol and health.

[Cookie Cusack · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first thing I want to mention in this review is the author's incredible generosity of spirit in sharing this no-holds-barred memoir of her tangled and messy journey from perpetually wasted party girl to sober mother.
Channeling her lifelong need to entertain and be the life of the party into this heartfelt yet hilarious read was an inspired decision. She takes us along for a rollercoaster ride, keeping the reader engaged through the clever arrangement of chapters.
Is it just a book for those struggling with alcohol or those doing the hard yards learning to cope with motherhood? Absolutely not. As an older, kid-free, light drinker, I still found much to entertain and inspire. What the book can offer is a way to understand how things that we once did to feel good, to fit in, to dampen fear and anxiety, may no longer serve us, and may harm us.
Some readers may find the language a little colourful and descriptions of events a little graphic.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A Thousand Wasted Sundays" is a rollercoaster of a book that grabs you by the collar and drags you through the mud, laughter, and tears—all the while you're thanking Victoria Vanstone for the ride. It's like sitting down for a coffee with a friend who has the most outrageous stories, but tells them with such charm and wit, you can't help but ask for another round. Vanstone doesn't just write; she entertains, weaving tales with the skill of a seasoned comedian, and the depth of a philosopher moonlighting as a barstool sage. This book is the literary equivalent of a perfectly timed punchline followed by a thoughtful nod. If you're looking for a read that feels like a weekend adventure with a friend who's just a bit too much (in the best way), "A Thousand Wasted Sundays" is your ticket. Strap in, it's a wild ride, but oh so worth it.

[Brenda Bramel · Rating 5 out of 5]

1000 Wasted Sundays… I read it in a day. I laughed out loud, I cringed and I had my hand on my heart when Victoria talked about the tsunami, her self doubt and the kids. All the while I sipped tea and shook my head “yes, she DID say that!”

I started following her journey on her podcast: Sober Awkward. She is brave and makes sobriety okay with her light hearted spin. She is a sober curious trailblazer that sparked my own journey! It is now a lovely life of tea, Wordle, walks, reading and cuddles with the kids.

Just wanted to say thanks to Vic for having the guts to write her memoir so others can see that any party girl can choose to live sober! I will pass the book on to my sober curious husband now… loved this book for its wit, honesty and a great ending!

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in a week and I’ve had problems finishing several books over the last few years. The chapters are structured in a very simple-to-read format. Easy to pick up and put down even if you only have short stints of time to dedicate - perfect for young Mums! I’m almost 4yrs alcohol free and a former party girl. I’m not a Mum but reading those sections were really interesting too. I found the Sober Awkward podcast early in my sober curious journey and Vic is very likable, relatable and funny, and shares some pretty intimate details of her life which demonstrates her vulnerability. It’s not written to sensationalise, it’s to help even just one person out there. When I first quit drinking I felt very alone. Vic makes those of us not drinking feel accepted and understood.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Victoria Vanstones’ account of her life as a binge drinking party animal is hilarious , sad and confronting ; especially if the reader questions their relationship with alcohol .
The authors honesty about her drinking habits are nothing short of brave. There were many pages where I laughed out loud and pages where I felt so sad for Vicky . Her story unpacks the lure of alcohol and how quickly it becomes ones crutch to lean on when life gets hard, complicated and even during celebratory moments . There will always be reason to drink and excuses when to quit. Vicky very clearly draws a line in the sand and bravely asks for help . I will read it over and over to stay motivated on my sober path

[Mike Longhurst]

I found A Thousand Wasted Sundays to be that rare of rare books, the page turner. If it was simply a book about a young woman’s wild adventures, then it would still be just as entertaining. But Victoria’s brave self-disclosures are more than that – the crazy times she writes of, provide the foundation for her serious, but non-preachy, message about the damage that is associated with excessive alcohol consumption. The end result is that the reader soon understands that this is not just a tale of excess, but a compassionate invitation to explore sobriety. Not from a wowser, or a smarmy ‘do-gooder’, but from someone who has ‘walked on the wild side’.

[Carmen Bichler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not only extremely entertaining and funny but also eye opening at the same time. Victorias life story reminded me a lot of my own and I appreciate someone bringing light into the dark world of addiction and the difficult moments when growing up. Certainly many of us have had similar experiences however never spoke about them. I was holding a lot of shame about myself, reading this helped me to feel more compassion towards myself and also towards this talented author. This would be a great read for teenagers to bring more awareness to substance abuse. Funny, heart breaking and eye opening. A must read!