All that Glitters - Tapa dura

'Lifts the lid on what it's like to run with the Primrose Hill set ... Ultimately uplifting, it's a sobering read for anyone who finds Pete Doherty's lifestyle glamorous' -- Cosmopolitan 'Our book of the summer, the year, the century' -- Guardian 'Utterly compelling' -- Sunday Times "horribly compelling" -- Guardian 20080412 'a poignantly self-flagellating inventory of her failures.' -- Observer 20080410 'a remarkably open and candid account that acarries a message of hope and redemption at its core...' -- Daily Express 20080511

Pearl Lowe has been a singer in a hugely successful pop group, a fashion model and a friend to some of the most famous people in the country. In the nineties, when Britpop was in full swing and London was officially the coolest place on the planet, Pearl really did have it all. She was a beautiful woman with a glamorous career and a rock and roll husband she adored, as well as a growing family of gorgeous kids. Life couldn't get much better. Except, actually, the parties and the homelife were in terrible tension because Pearl was drinking and taking drugs to such excess that she wasn't sure she would survive. She was a junkie before she discovered party drugs like ecstasy and cocaine. She swapped one drug for another and then another and she always drank. She managed to look after her kids in between enormous binges, but she knew it couldn't last for ever and one day she knew she had a choice to make: confront the demons, get clean and have her life back, or give up and slip away further into addiction, illness, death. Pearl made her choice. These days she lives with her husband and children in the countryside and she has left the London lifestyle behind. But she isn't the kind of person who could ever give up on glamour - it's just that these days she designs her own line of beautiful lace dresses rather than killing herself slowly with booze and drugs. She is happy. Pearl's story is a fascinating insight into a world that appears scintillating but is relentless in its destructiveness. It's also inspiring in its message that recovery is possible and sustainable, for everyone.