To celebrate the publication of #DisobedientBodies – the new manifesto on beauty from Emma Dabiri, the bestselling author of #WhatWhitePeopleCanDoNext – we’re running a giveaway with UK indie nail polish brand Télle Moi.

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

He’s also quite taken with alcohol-free beer and is keen to spread the word through his book and an associated tour, which will take in The Holroyd Community Theatre in Oswestry on Monday. Opening in 1963 New York, to Renaissance Florence, to the birth of theatre in fifth-century Athens, and the Sex Pistols shattering Thatcherite Britain - take your seat for the history of performance. An interesting topic. I’d never thought of the swathe in the middle of the binary tee-total and heavy drinker. Moderation can be tough because it’s one’s own interpretation of the target and success against that target. The great takeaways for me: This book resonated with me - Adrian's journey with alcohol, and his sensible, relatable, reasonable, and above all, achievable approach to reducing alcohol intake turned out to be very similar to my own.The broadcaster, who grew up in Hagley, in Worcestershire, and is famous for his love of West Bromwich Albion, was enjoying career success, having had high-profile TV jobs on The Apprentice: You’re Fired!, The One Show, Daybreak and football coverage on ITV Sport as well as numerous radio gigs including Radio 5 Live.

I chose not to lose the booze completely, says reformed

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' 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 Without wishing to come across as ‘un-Christmassy’, I think there should be a special place in hell for anyone who says anything to you along the lines of, “C’mon, it’s Christmas, have another one! What do you mean you’re not drinking? Scrooge!’” 4. Use Dry January wisely 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.

Moderating your drinking during the festive season

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. Then he made the documentary. “For the first time ever, I did what I now recommend everyone to do, which is to record how much you’re drinking. On the first day I’d gone to the football, then to a party, and didn’t feel particularly drunk and it didn’t feel like a big drinking day but I’d done 36 units. I thought, ‘hang on there’s something wrong here, that’s a monstrous amount’.” 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! This was a very interesting read. I think there’s a lot of value in a book that recognises that for most people, total abstinence from alcohol is not a realistic decision, given societal reliance on it in social situations. 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.

book The Good Drinker to Ilkley Adrian Chiles brings his book The Good Drinker to Ilkley

The popular broadcaster and columnist sets out to discover the unsung pleasures of drinking in moderation. Adrian recently married Guardian editor Katharine Viner at Jervaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire. Viner was raised in Yorkshire and went to Ripon Grammar School, so the pair spend a lot of time in Yorkshire. This book is generally light hearted and easy going despite the occasionally mean and hurtful things it has to say about alcohol.

I gave this interesting book a try even though I was 75% certain that it would be a bait and switch to abstinence only. 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. If wine is being freely poured, fill your glass with water once you’ve drunk the wine. Don’t drink any more wine until you’ve finished the water.” 6. Consider alcohol-free drinks 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