Harriet Tyce, the author of the novel 'Blood Orange', has revealed that she gave up alcohol at the age of 49 after 35 years of drinking. In a recent article, she described how she would frequently black out and make a fool of herself, but continued to drink heavily due to being highly functional.
Tyce started drinking as a teenager in Edinburgh, where off-licences sold vermouth to her and her friends despite their school uniforms. At 15, she vomited over a dinner table at a formal ball, but still achieved straight As. The pattern of binge drinking and getting away with it continued through her 20s as a criminal barrister.
A turning point came during a trip to Barcelona in her early 30s, when after a night of heavy drinking she vomited blood into a bin at a train station. Despite vowing to quit, she was drinking again within days at a wedding. It took until age 49 for her to stop completely.
Tyce now speaks openly about her past, noting that many friends approach her at parties to discuss their own drinking habits. She avoids the label 'alcoholic', but acknowledges her relationship with alcohol was damaging. Her novel includes a scene where a character's drunken self-perception differs starkly from reality, a lesson Tyce says she learned the hard way.
