In June 1994, Michael Barrymore, television celebrity and gameshow host, checked himself out of an American clinic where he was receiving treatment for alcohol and drug abuse. Father Martin's 'Ashley' is a rehabilitation centre in Maryland, USA, where Michael lived for thirty days with members of almost every community in America, all seeking the common goal of sobriety. Michael's day-to-day account of that month in his life provides a candid, sometimes painful, funny and revelatory story of human endurance, challenges the stereotyped view of rehab, and allows the reader a first-hand insight into the disease of addiction.