Through a glass, darkly

ALCOHOL HAS MANY SIDE EFFECTS: euphoria, conviviality, mindless violence, cancer and mental breakdown. But from the point of view of the alcoholic, its most seductive property is its ability to justify itself.

“You find the best stories in the pub,” my colleagues and I on the old Fleet Street would hear alcohol tell us as we knocked off for a long lunch, which could last into a long evening. And indeed, as the drink flowed, glistening and glorious ideas for stories appeared that had us falling off our bar stools in helpless laughter. As it flowed some more, they were forgotten and replaced by new ideas more glistening and more glorious. Cut off the flow, the alcohol whispers, and you will become a deadbeat bore, churning out pap and living the unremarked life.

Christopher Hitchens, who contrary to the portrayals of his enemies was the most generous of intellectuals, once gave me an uncharacteristically