For twenty years, Nell Wing worked as assistant and executive secretary to Bill W., co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. Throughout those years and in the decades that followed, she was a friend and companion to Bill’s wife, Lois W., the co-founder of Al-Anon. Researcher, publications editor, layout and production coordinator, archivist, and public speaker—at work in the World Services Office of AA from 1947 until her retirement in 1982—Nell knew Bill and Lois and AA in a way no one else could In this book, she shares her memories and impressions of more than forty years on the inside. Her reflections offer remarkable insight into the makings, and the workings of AA.

“Nell Wing’s personal lose-up of the people, alcoholics, and civilians in and around the formative years of Alcoholics Anonymous is delightful and buoyant reading. From her unique perspective, Wing’s keen memories help to clarify and humanize the reasons that, in my opinion, AA is just about the greatest, and in some ways most enigmatic, social movement of the present century.”
– George N. Gordon Ph.D., Professor of Communications, Fordham University

"This is the finest and most accurate writing I have read, and I knew Lois and Bill very well."
– J. George Strachan, author of Alcoholism: A Treatable Illness