Woman of Substances: A Journey into Addiction and Treatment

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There are several more additions to this long running saga and I can not wait to read them!! I see now why this book was so popular and remained so for decades, and why so many people still say it is one of their favorite books of all time.

Excellent combination of Valentish's memoir of addiction and non-fiction exploration of the social underpinnings of how women come to abuse substances, and how physiologically, medically, and socially women are discouraged from getting help. A strong woman understands that the gifts such as logic, decisiveness, and strength are just as feminine as intuition and emotional connection. She values and uses all of her gifts.” Nancy RathburnValentish’s passion lies in exploring the underlying causes and their effects and, in the most female of ways, offering companionship and reassurance for her readers.’ —the Monthly Valentish is a British woman who has lived in Australia for many years, and those countries have a different language for treatment than America. A woman of real substance doesn’t shy away from the word sorry. She can hold her hands up and say “My bad”. If I was her child I probably would have conspired against Emma too. No wonder her children turned out to be such cold spoiled brats! They probably had no love and were all from so many different dads they couldn't keep up with their family tree either.

Emma's life goes on. Her children marry and have children of their own: Edwina marries Lord Jeremy Standish and has a son Anthony; Kit has a daughter Sarah; Robin has a son Jonathan; Elizabeth marries repeatedly, resulting in son Alexander, daughter Emily, and twins Amanda and Francesca; Daisy marries David Amory and has two children, Philip and Paula.But why did she decide to write about a Pakhtun family? Mir says that she has family links with that culture and that she became interested in the community in Bradford years ago when she was out on a reporting assignment and found herself in a beautiful garden crescent in Bradford, which turned out to be populated entirely by Pakhtun families. I loved the adaptation with Jenny Seagrove who gave Emma sufficient warmth to make her likeable and read the book again as a result and though I still enjoyed the story, I was not so enraptured as first time round. It is overlong and would benefit from some judicious pruning.