The Good Drinker: How I Learned to Love Drinking Less

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Adrian never talks down to the reader and is very open about his shift in perspective when faced by medical advice to cut down (after being sure he wasn't doing much harm with his weekly units each week). An interesting, entertaining but serious examination of many peoples’ relationships with alcohol and the lies and denials involved. All about the challenge of doing something about excessive drinking short of going fully abstinent. Seems to be working for him so far. Contains quite a few clever sounding approaches taken by him and various others he's talked to. But then, conscious of how much he was drinking, he focused on himself for a 2018 BBC documentary Drinkers Like Me to test how his regular drinking affected his health. He discovered he was drinking up to 100 units a week and a doctor told him he had signs of liver damage. Consider it a bit of a win, an achievement, a marginal gain, if you end up drinking any less than what you’ve predicted.” 2. Work out if you really need it

The Good Drinker: How I Learned to Love Drinking - WHSmith

When broadcaster Adrian Chiles started to investigate his drinking, he was in for a rude awakening. First book of the year as I wasn't entirely sure where to start but this stood out to me. As someone who enjoyed Chiles' 2018 documentary Dry January after a rather Wet December has been the sort of moderate conversation I've always really wanted to have with someone. Adrian is a British TV and radio journalist, perhaps best known as a football commentator and fan. He did a TV programme a couple of years ago called Drinkers Like Me, where he examined his drinking habits and wondered whether he should cut down. This book is a sort of follow-up to the TV show. HowTheTricolorGotItsStripes is a highly entertaining and likeable history of flags by Ukrainian ex-cabinet Minister Dmytro Dubilet and was originally published in Ukrainian 🇺🇦If it’s somewhere where there’s wine flowing, I’ll have a glass of wine but when I’ve finished that I wouldn’t drink any more wine until I’d filled that same glass with water and finished that. That’s reducing the volume and stops you being dehydrated.” These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience – the local community. He never thought he had a problem, going to the pub after work, downing a few pints most nights, enjoying a few glasses of wine with dinner.

The Good Drinker: How I Learned to Love Drinking Less The Good Drinker: How I Learned to Love Drinking Less

I am completely in the same headspace as in that I enjoy drinking and if I can do it moderately then why give up the habit of a lifetime. Since the new year my drinking diary says I have averaged 15.78 units/week so not quite to the government's safe drinking guide level yet but close. If you’re the kind of drinker who struggles to stop drinking once you start, consider making your first couple of drinks alcohol-free.” 7. Give alcohol less credit for how you feel The prose is quite chatty, but that is to be expected for what is effectively someone's memoir of their relationship with alcohol. I was almost averse to labelling this an autobiography, but there are some allusions to the slightly tougher parts of his life, both on and off the screen. Chiles tends to avoid the potential of it being self-indulgent and distracting from what is a rather consistent and well-constructed argument for moderation. Honest, funny and full of strategies on how to moderate your drinking, Chiles is genuinely passionate about his pints and the need to enjoy them without ever coming across as preachy - a fine line many have failed to tread ... sage ... funny and touching' He blames ‘social norming’ for binge drinking. “We all think everybody drinks too much, but half the adult population never go to pubs or clubs. The figures show about 70per cent of people do drink within the guidelines. The problem is, drinkers like me surround ourselves with other drinkers. So, every greeting card you see has drink on the card. We’re only choosing to see the other drinkers.”This is a refreshingly honest into the Author's relationship with alcohol. While he does not conform with stereotypes of alcoholism, he certainly has/had/suffered/suffered it. And the way he discusses these issues with others who have had similar experiences but dealt with it in a variety of ways have helped provide me some techniques that may be useful at present or in the future (in areas other than alcohol). This captivating A-Z compendium by #KateSummerscale explores the world in 99 obsessions - from spiders to clowns to all that will make your skin crawl. If you’re drinking more than 50 units a week. and think 14 is a ludicrous impossibility but you're developing diseases, just cut down to 30. GPs won't say this but they should. Some diversionary tactics will ensure none of your 500 friends will notice and disown you. If you can drop to 30 units, your health will improve enormously! I read some stuff. Don't waste good drinking time trying to get down to 14 units. It's stupid. You'll be boring. Don't be teetotal, unless you're a famous comedian. Do NOT try to drink 'occasionally', unless you're not one of my 500 friends. Chiles's self-deprecation may be stage-managed, but the underlying modesty is real. Sitting alongside his propensity to admit his ignorance is an attractive willingness to listen to anyone, of any age or social station, who might tell him something meaningful ... This is why Adrian Chiles is beautiful'

I chose not to lose the booze completely, says reformed

He thanks "the clinicians who’ve given me so much of their time sharing their expertise", but why not put some in the book? He assures us "there are mountains of scientific studies on all this" and he has done "a fair amount of reading and listening on the subject". Drinking 100s of units a week, he says, meant facing "some pretty dire consequences with my innards". Don't buy this book thinking you'll learn anything at all about the effects of alcohol on health.

His pal, the comedian Frank Skinner, told him he envied his level of drinking, his ability to drink sociably without ending up falling asleep in a skip. Skinner hasn’t touched a drop in decades. Adrian Chiles with pal Frank Skinner Chiles started drinking enthusiastically in his teens, continued in his 20s and although by his 30s he had small children, he still spent a fair amount of time in the pub. By his 40s he was famous and successful, socialising a lot, which always involved drinking. I’ve occasionally been asked why it is that I need to go for a drink before watching the Albion play. I’ve always answered with something lame, along the lines of, “You wanna try watching us sober”… where does this urge come from? I’ve raced off to games hours early to give me a chance to drink a lot of beer in a relatively short time … the craic is good, usually. Sometimes it isn’t, Occasionally it’s all rather boring. But I always make the effort. Why? Well..’ Ah, this was excellent. Not quite 5* but not far off. Adrian’s story is quite something and many reading it, like me, won’t be drinking anything like the volumes he does. But it serves as a cautionary reminder that alcohol can be enjoyed, but in moderation. Every year in January I have a dry month and I always read at least one book on the topic to remind me of the need to consume carefully for the year ahead.

The Good Drinker and other mindful drinking books for 2023 The Good Drinker and other mindful drinking books for 2023

Have to say, this was a really well written and easy to follow read on Chiles' life with alcohol and how he kept it in his life without losing the ability to have it altogether. Discover your next non-fiction read and brilliant book gifts in the Profile newsletter, and find books to help you live well with Souvenir Press. This book is generally light hearted and easy going despite the occasionally mean and hurtful things it has to say about alcohol.

Customer reviews

Fantastic, honest book. So much of what Adrian writes resonates with me. I recently spoke with a friend who told me for years she had a three drink limit on a night out and never once did she feel like she’d missed out by swapping to soft drinks after that. I thought if only I had been blessed with her will power, as I certainly could never do that! But this book has made me realise that’s utter rubbish. Of course I can do that, I’ve just never really wanted to. I do now! Having had Allan Carr's The Easy Way to Control Alcohol for a few years and never had the inclination to get round to reading it, I thought I would give this a go as it seemed a bit more likely and a bit more achievable for me.