Adrian is honest and transparent about his own alcohol journey, and the challenge in cutting down, whilst still enjoying a drink. There’s no silver bullet in the book - just a series of sensible measures we can all take to start the process of becoming a Good Drinker. How can we reconnect to one another and to what's sustaining, when evil and catastrophe seem inescapable?

As for actual strategies to cut down, there are an assortment littered throughout the book some of which may be useful. The style is chatty and easy to read, with his alcohol journey split into decades, intertwined with advice he's received from others and his personal thoughts on moderation.The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. 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 .

And sober living is weaved into the text throughout; though it is not the only topic, everything supports it. 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 . thinking that on a day on holiday with wine starting at lunchtime, pushing through the afternoon with a beer in the sunshine, cocktails before dinner, and yet more wine with dinner – it probably wasn’t dissimilar units wise. There is some practical advice here, but it is more about presenting an alternative to giving up completely. I always assumed that my friendship group, which was 98% made up of drinkers, merely reflected society, but that’s nonsense.As it turned out, I had a really good time, but it became startlingly clear how reliant I was on alcohol. That’s where Adrian Chiles’s likable and highly readable memoir of his relationship with booze comes in. First and foremost, alcohol is so woven into the fabric of my life, in all sorts of different ways, that it would take a great deal of unpicking. The popular broadcaster and columnist sets out to discover the unsung pleasures of drinking in moderation. I didn’t agree with everything (for example I think Adrian puts too much emphasis on units, though if they work for him then calculate away!

If I lined up all the drinks I’d drunk in a forty-year drinking career, stretching back to my mid-teens, that line would be around three miles long. However, he also points out that a lot of people who drink a lot are put off by the thought of total abstinence – and therefore don’t bother looking at their drinking levels at all, because moderate drinking isn’t often deemed an option. It may be easier to give up alcohol totally than commit yourself to a future life of drinking moderately.Whether you are suffering from loneliness, lack of courage, heartbreak, hopelessness, or even from an excess of ego, there is something here to ease your pain. The combination of facts and anecdotes means it’s an interesting and amusing read and I plan to follow Adrian’s example and be more mindful about what I consume alcohol-wise going forwards. So, it’s greatly to our advantage if we can find a way of making the stuff work for us, rather than the other way around. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Plus get our latest news and special offers for members to choose better drinks, change your drinking and connect with others.