Product details
- ISBN 9781918428445
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 30 Jun 2026
- Publisher: Brown Dog Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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A brutally honest and hilarious memoir about addiction recovery, fame-adjacent life and learning how to start again.
When Paul Drayton briefly finds himself in prison in 2022 after a dangerous driving conviction, he is forced to confront the truth about the life he has been living. What follows is a candid and deeply personal journey through addiction, relationships, identity and recovery.
From growing up in Sunderland to navigating London’s nightlife scene, falling in love with Alan Carr to discovering what it feels like to live beside fame without sharing the spotlight, Paul reflects on the highs, the chaos and the mistakes that shaped his life.
A late ADHD diagnosis at fifty and determined to rebuild his future, he begins the difficult process of understanding himself and creating a new chapter.
Honest, self-aware and funny, this is a memoir about accountability, resilience and the courage to start again.
Paul Drayton is a British actor and writer whose life has spanned working-class Sunderland, London’s nightlife, and the edges of the celebrity world, to his happy home life in the countryside. He brings a brutally honest perspective to stories of addiction, identity and public scrutiny. After more than a decade of being the 'other half' of a celebrity couple, Drayton writes with sharp candour and dark humour about the realities of unravelling and rebuilding life from the ground up. From his long-term relationship with comedian Alan Carr, to his personal experiences from childhood, to a late-in-life ADHD diagnosis, Paul's story is a remarkable one of resilience, missed opportunities and self-awareness. His memoir, Ride – or Die Trying, is his debut book. He lives peacefully in the countryside with his beloved dogs.
