Clubs, Drugs & Canapes

Armed with a bottle of Milk Thistle and unshakeable optimism, Nick Valentine has spent most of his adult life in fifth gear, betting on a Royal Flush while covertly holding a pair of deuces. This is his story, the odyssey of a suburban bloke who has blagged, lucked and laughed his way into just about every party, club, stage and hot-tub imaginable. Following his first brush with celebrity at an impressionable age, and spending his teens and twenties as, amongst other things, a journalist, publicist, club promoter, musician and DJ, Nick eventually banked in the shallows of party central. He spent 15 years as a social editor on London’s celebrity canapé circuit, while co-founding the Entertainment News press agency. An enterprising period acting as a social PR to the super-rich led to him co-founding three London nightclubs in quick succession, including the much lauded Cuckoo Club. With the West End as his nocturnal playground, he then bid sleep a final fond farewell. Nick professes to have attended well over 5,000 parties in his time, drunk enough champagne to test the Thames barrier and occasionally made it home in time for Countdown. 'I'm a night person,' he says. 'The trouble is I'm a morning and afternoon person as well.' This account is a surprisingly touching, light-hearted look at the daily mechanics of enjoying life to the max and then some.