Book interview: Robyn Flemming on addiction and the stranger's comment that changed her life

Embarking on an open-ended adventure to defeat addiction

Author Robyn Flemming: “I have this idea that there should be a dating app for senior citizens called ‘tender’ as opposed to tindr.”

Proving that ageing is not a barrier to reinvention, 69-year-old Robyn Flemming, an Australian freelance editor, has never lost her adventurous spirit. The author of Skinful: A Memoir of Addiction has written a captivating and honest account of what it is like to be in thrall to alcohol, why she drank to excess and how she got sober.

Flemming’s book is also about travel, meeting new people, and challenging herself to run five marathons and 48 half marathons as well as long distance treks in a dozen different countries — primarily as a way to force her to control her drinking. If she had a marathon the next day, she might only allow herself two of glasses of wine the night before or at most, four. It was a mainly delusional strategy. But all part of the author’s journey of self-discovery.