Everything I Know about Love is a 2018 Memoir by Dolly Alderton focussing on her friendships and dating life from her teens years in suburban North London through university in Exeter and her time housesharing with her friends in Camden. It was adapted by Alderton into a seven-part television series in 2022 which aired on BBC One and Peacock.
The book provides examples of:
- The All-Concealing "I": Downplayed, but Dolly isn't immediately revealed as the "I" in the text of the book, which creates some ambiguity about whether the book is intended to be taken as straightforwardly autobiographical or a more fictionalised narrative that is Very Loosely Based on a True Story.
- Altar the Speed: Inverted. Farly and Scott postpone their wedding for a year after Florence is diagnosed with leukaemia since they want to wait until Florence is in remission and well enough to be a bridesmaid. They end up breaking off their engagement after Florence’s death.
- Culturally Religious: Farly and her family are Jewish but aren't shown as being religious on a day-to-day basis. When Florence dies, the family sit shiva after her funeral.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Dolly's most enduring relationship is with Farly, who's been her best friend since they were eleven years old. When she finds out that Scott is planning to propose to Farly, she's devastated because she and Farly won't get to share their lives together like she had planned.
- Kids Raiding the Wine Cabinet: Dolly gets drunk for the first time accidentally at a friend's bat mitzvah. She enjoys the experience so much that she starts drinking from her parents' drinks cabinet when she's home alone.
- Life Imitates Art: In-Universe, Dolly's first major writing job is on the creative team of Made in Chelsea. When she pours her heart out to her boss, Dilly, about Farly and Scott's engagement, Dilly jokes that she should have installed cameras in Dolly's house and that this situation would have made a perfect structured reality plot.
- Out of Focus: Dolly's friends besides Farly throughout their university and housesharing days don't really emerge as fully-formed characters, even after Farly moves out of the house in Camden.
