The Good Drinker: How I Learned to Love Drinking Less

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Published: 26 Oct 2023 Why are young people all growing mullets? I’ve been inspired by a much better hairstyle AC: Something you said that really resonated with me, and actually made a difference to my moderation, was when you said that when you’re not drinking, you’ve got to make an extra effort with people, to be funny, and charming. I thought drinking was absolutely essential to have a good time. If you’re using that word, “essential”, you’ve got to have a look at your relationship with alcohol. In the past, you could have filled a room with all my favourite people in the world, and if I wasn’t allowed to drink, I wouldn’t really be looking forward to seeing them. JR: I would get to a wedding where they would greet you with a glass of prosecco, and I would immediately be in a bad mood. It’s midday – I don’t want to start with prosecco. Is there a bar? No, not til four. Four hours of prosecco. AC: And now you must talk, to some extent, about sobriety – presumably there’s not a lot of comedy in lecturing people. So how do you deal with that? Discover the fascinating history of the humble notebook, from the bustling markets of medieval Florence to the quiet studies of our greatest thinkers. This is the perfect read for stationery fans and history buffs alike!

Published: 19 Oct 2023 Goodbye widescreen, hello tallscreen – soon we’ll watch everything from football to movies in portrait mode 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.” Chiles began writing a regular column for The Guardian in February 2019. [37] He confirmed his relationship with the newspaper's editor, Katharine Viner, in an interview with The Daily Telegraph in April 2020, saying "I’ve got a horror of talking about relationships. I don’t mind saying I’m with Kath." [34] Chiles has said that the relationship began as a result of him writing the column and not the other way around, though Will Self has questioned this. [38]Chiles was born in Quinton, Birmingham, to an English father and Croatian mother, and moved a few miles away to Hagley, Worcestershire at the age of four. [2] His Birmingham accent is a feature of his presentations. He also speaks Croatian, despite having a self-confessed imperfect understanding of the language's verbs, declensions, and cases. [3] Chiles started his education at Haybridge High School, and then worked in his father's scaffolding business, before graduating with a degree in English literature from the University of London (studying at Westfield College, now part of Queen Mary, University of London). [2] AC: I think people are led to believe that moderation isn’t possible: that if you successfully moderate, it’s because you didn’t have much of a problem in the first place. Otherwise, the ideas are very binary. People will stop you in the street and say: “I hear you’re on the wagon,” or: “Are you a friend of Bill’s?” or: “Are you still off the booze?” It doesn’t even occur to people that there could be a middle ground, either you’re completely befuddled and drunk the whole time, or you’re completely sober. Adrian Chiles bids farewell in final appearance on The One Show, The Daily Telegraph (London), 1 May 2010 Methven, Nicola (19 November 2011). "Christine Bleakley and Adrian Chiles axed as hosts of ITV flop Daybreak". Daily Record. Glasgow. Archived from the original on 30 July 2012. Chiles was the World Record holder for highest number of kisses received in 60 seconds from 2007 until 2009, with 78. [24] [25]

Chiles married Jane Garvey, a former regular presenter of Woman's Hour on Radio 4, in September 1998 in Swansea. Chiles and Garvey have two daughters. In June 2008, the couple separated; they divorced in October 2009. [31] Chiles married [32] Guardian editor Kath Viner in 2022. [33] Chiles, Adrian (2007). We Don't Know What We're Doing: Adventures with the extraordinary fans of an ordinary team. Sphere. ISBN 978-1-84744-013-6. In 2020, Chiles revealed in his Guardian column that he had been diagnosed with ADD. He wrote that his condition is being successfully treated with prescription drugs, after he had initially disregarded his symptoms. [41]

JR: At the heart of this is one of the useful definitions of an alcoholic as opposed to a heavy drinker. When you take the first drink, are you able to limit your drinking from that point onwards? You talk about drinking two pints of Stella mixed with spring water as part of your moderation. That would be absolutely impossible for me to do, because once I have one drink, I then drink to exactly the same point every time. Books telling us to give up drinking are 10 a penny, but how about something for those of us who like a social drink but are occasionally worried that two turn into four rather too easily? That’s where Adrian Chiles’s likable and highly readable memoir of his relationship with booze comes in. He writes that “the vast majority of drinkers like me believe they are not problem drinkers”. He details his experiences in cutting down, to comic and insightful effect, and skilfully but never preachingly, offers suggestions for others, too. The Little Blue Flames AC: Moderation is complicated. It’s more complicated than stopping in the sense that everyone knows you’ve stopped. There is no more decision-making. I’ve got 100 decisions to make all the time. I’m not looking for pity here, but I have to decide now, what will I drink tonight? JR: The difference between us is that you’re moderating to change a habit. Whereas I was, unbeknownst to me, moderating to try to control an addiction. You describe alcohol as a handrail. I would say alcohol was the handrail, the stairs and the destination.