> Skip to content
[]
Play sample
  • Published: 15 July 2016
  • ISBN: 9781785032721
  • Imprint: Ebury Press
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $32.99

Ctrl, Alt; Delete

How I Grew Up Online



A funny, poignant memoir of growing up online and surviving the perils of social media

Emma Gannon was born in 1989, the year the World Wide Web was conceived, so she’s literally grown up alongside the Internet. There’ve been late night chat room experiments, sexting from a Nokia and dubious webcam exchanges. And let’s not forget catfishing, MSN, digital friendships and #feminism. She was basically social networking way before it was a thing – and she’s even made a successful career from it.

Ctrl Alt Delete is Emma’s painfully funny and timely memoir, in which she aims to bring a little hope to anybody who has played out a significant part of their life online. Her confessions, revelations and honesty may even make you log off social media (at least for an hour).

  • Published: 15 July 2016
  • ISBN: 9781785032721
  • Imprint: Ebury Press
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $32.99

About the author

Emma Gannon

Emma Gannon is the Sunday Times bestselling author of nine books, including A Year of Nothing and OLIVE, which was nominated for the Dublin Literary Award. Her second novel, Table for One (2025), was selected as People magazine’s 'Fiction of the Week.' Emma also writes one of the UK’s most popular Substack newsletters, The Hyphen, which has thousands of paid subscribers. In addition to her writing, she hosts creativity retreats around the world and served as a judge for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction.

Also by Emma Gannon

See all

Praise for Ctrl, Alt; Delete

Emma Gannon is a voice of humour, truth and resilience in the parched internet landscape. I adore her presence online and off

Lena Dunham

A must read!

Zoella (Zoe Sugg)