John Cooper Clarke's analysis of CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM EATER is a fascinating piece, telling us a lot about the author - a respectable middle-class writer who believed (like many before and after him) that he could kick the opium habit at any time, but found himself sinking further and further into addiction.
First published in the 1820s, CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM EATER was a cleverly titled work: opium is not eaten but taken as a liquid, but the title suggests consumption, a kind of maniacal love of the fluid that sums up De Quincey's attitude. He spent a lot of his time staying with Wordsworth up in England's Lake District and became close to the poet's family, but soon his habit grew so bad that he left the area altogether.
In the end De Quincey led a hand-to-mouth existence of doom and debt. He wrote for major magazines such as Blackwood's in Edinburgh, but his habit ate up all his money. He published a revised, less effective, second edition of CONFESSION in the 1850s, but this made little difference to his life.
As a former heroin addict, John Cooper Clarke proved an ideal guide, his dry, dulcet tones telling us a lot about De Quincey's life as well as his (Clarke's) dislike for the Lake District.