Gin Lane 2011: LIZ JONES discovers what drives young women to binge on 20p shots putting them on a path to self-destruction

Growing up in my home town of Southend, I was known by my peer group as the ‘girl least likely to...'.


Painfully shy and unattractive, I never had a boyfriend, or even attempted to snare one. I didn’t drink at all. In fact, I only had my first glass of alcohol on Millennium Eve, at the age of 42. I didn’t lose my virginity until my late 30s.

Over the years, I’ve often wished I’d been more carefree; more like the girls who, fuelled by alcohol, let their inhibitions go. At least I might have got married young instead of in my 40s; had children, perhaps.

But that was before the tragedy that befell Laura, my sister-in-law. She was a shy, beautiful young woman who started drinking to be more sociable at university in Edinburgh. She was unable to stop.   Full Read

Posted in: News