A comic who built a career in British broadcasting and on stage has turned his own drinking life into an audiobook he narrates himself. Thirst: Twelve Drinks That Changed My Life, written and read by John Robins and produced by Alfie Thompson for Penguin Audio, runs 11 hours and 36 minutes and was published on 7 May. The Guardian reviewed the audiobook on 6 August 2026, drawing fresh attention to a memoir that has already reached the Sunday Times bestseller list.

Robins is a comedian and broadcaster best known for his shows on Radio X and BBC 5 Live, and for co-hosting the podcast The Moon Under Water, where guests described their ideal pub. His website describes him as a comedian and digital DJ. Thirst is his first book-length memoir, and it arrives in both a print edition from Penguin Books Ltd and the Penguin Audio production. Robins announced the release on his official Instagram account on 8 May 2026, telling followers, "I wanted to find out what alcohol means."

The memoir's structure is built around a dozen drinks, each one a turning point. Robins traces his life in alcohol and his path to sobriety chronologically through those twelve moments. He has said he did not understand what an alcoholic was until he stopped drinking — a line he repeated in his Instagram announcement of the book.

Robins is now sober and, according to The Guardian's review, must grapple with the depression from which alcohol was shielding him. The memoir does not present sobriety as a clean resolution. Instead, it treats the giving-up as a beginning, not an ending.

The audiobook format places Robins' own voice at the centre of the story. Penguin Audio, an imprint of Penguin Random House, produced the recording, with Alfie Thompson credited as producer. Robins wrote and narrated the full text. For listeners, that means the comic's delivery — the timing, the pauses, the shifts between comedy and something darker — is his own editorial choice, not a director's or a voice actor's.

The print edition carries the ISBN 9781405982092 and is available through standard retail channels. The audiobook is distributed through platforms including libro.fm and audiobooks.com.

What makes Thirst stand out in a crowded memoir market is the combination of its author's background in live comedy and his decision to narrate the audiobook himself. A comedian's memoir read by the comedian is not unusual, but Robins' career as a performer — someone whose living depends on reading a room — gives the self-narration a particular charge. The listener hears the jokes land, and the silences that follow the ones that do not.

The Guardian's review, published on 6 August, describes the audiobook as a "darkly funny journey" through one drinker's life and out the other side.