HAVE ONE ON ME, A REVIEW OF: NICHOLAS LEZARD DRINK: A SOCIAL HISTORY

by Pimlico 401pp (GBP)12.50 pbk

As the season progresses, drinkers brace themselves for an onslaught
by the fanatical, swivel-eyed minority which blames everything bad on
alcohol.

But this past Christmas Britain had reason to celebrate in the
police's recommendation not to lower the blood/alcohol level for
drivers; and in the paperback publication of this wondrous book. It's
a funny old world when the police are more sensible than the
Government, and one hopes that legislators can spare the time to read
Barr's book. (We appreciate the aptness of his name.) For if there is
one message that comes out of it, it's that if you want people to
drink less, for God's sake don't try to stop them. Alcohol consumption
in England actually fell after the 1987 licensing bill finally let
pubs in England open in the afternoon. There is plenty here on the
history of governments' attempts to tinker with drinking habits.

What has made them so charmingly inconsistent, hypocritical and mad
are the conflicting desires to impose order and to cream off vast
amounts of tax revenue (and don't tax drink too highly: this -- for
"drink" in Barr's book also means tea and coffee -- will lead to riots
and the loss of your American colonies). There is also the subliminal
way in which governments know that they prefer their subjects to drink
rather than to think; the Russian Revolution may well have been given
its spark by the banning of vodka in 1914. But there's more to it than
that. Here is Frederick the Great, being even greater than ever: "It
is disgusting to notice the increase in coffee used by my subjects . .
. His Majesty was brought up on beer and so were his ancestors and
officers.

Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers nourished on beer,
and the King does not believe that coffee-drinking soldie! rs can be
depended on to endure hardship or beat his enemies." The point is,
alcohol, at the right dosage (which in parts of Italy would seem to be
five or six litres of wine a day), is good for you. This book is good
for you, too. Barr's research is first-rate, his prose has notes of
elderflower and cedar, and his conclusions leave a lingering
aftertaste and a big shaggy nose.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry