Bits of Me are Falling Apart: Dark Thoughts from the Middle Years [Paperback]

'Hilarious and touching and beautifully written ... Philip Larkin meets Jeremy Clarkson, but in a good way. This is a middle-aged The Catcher in the Rye' Jon Ronson 'Resembles an expertly-paced stand-up routine ... positively Izzard-esque' Time Out 'Very funny. He writes in a sort of whimsical stream of consciousness ... even his more random disquisitions contain glorious nuggets' Observer 'Moves at the kind of pace any thriller writer would give his eye teeth to maintain' Daily Telegraph --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

QUOTES FOR 'THE HUNGRY YEARS' 'Part of what makes The Hungry Years so hilariously effective is Leith's recognition that the only honest way to explore the obesity epidemic is to examine his own drives and desires' Time Out 'A vivid memoir ... lucidly describing his own obsessive troughing and bloating' Evening Standard 'This hilarious, self-lacerating memoir of a compulsive eater is a superb book. I feel about The Hungry Years the way William Leith feels about buttered toast: I couldn't get enough and I panicked when I was reaching the end. William Leith has always been one of our best non-fiction writers and this is his crowning achievement' Jon Ronson, author of 'Them: Adventures with Extremists' and 'The Men Who Stare At Goats'

One morning in August 2007, William Leith wakes up and realises that something is wrong. He is not in a bed, but on an old mattress on the floor. He is not in a house. He is in his office. He is alone. He no longer lives with his little boy and the mother of his little boy. Mentally, he is at the end of his tether. Physically, he is fraying at the edges. Bits of him are falling apart. But then again, so is everything else - the economy, the environment, the very fabric of society.With his trademark darkly humorous mix of personal story and social commentary, Leith attempts to answer the question: is everything really falling apart? Or is it just him? He examines the ageing process in humans, and in everything else as well, from the universe to the banking system. And he comes to realise that, even if he can't solve the problems of the world, at least he has a thorough understanding of failure.

William Leith is a journalist who has written about subjects as diverse as cosmetic surgery, Palestine, Hollywood directors, and drugs. He writes regularly for the Guardian, the Observer, and the Daily Telegraph. His first book, The Hungry Years, was published by Bloomsbury in 2005.