Changes

I had a eureka moment with this book. I enjoy alcohol. It's perhaps going a little far to say that I love it, but I do count it as one of life's great pleasures. I love the ''taste'' you see - the depth and complexity of flavours which you get in a good wine or the sharp apple tang of a good cider. What I don't like - in fact ''resent'' - is the effect the alcohol has on me, because it restricts the amount I can drink. I thought everyone was like this and that over imbibing came from having too much of something you enjoyed. I feel an innocent - even an idiot - because I now realise that a lot of people, perhaps even the majority in some age groups, struggle to come to terms with the taste but persevere because they want to get drunk. Where's the fun in that, I though. But Stark illustrates that this is, in fact, what is happening.

The areas covered are wide ranging. It's not just the effect on the individual's health, but the wider cost to the community. It's what drunkenness is doing to some locations and on an individual basis what it does to personal relationships and the risks the individual runs. From Stark's point of view it was fascinating to find how she dealt with the stresses of her job ''sober'' - and the dating scene fuelled only with soda water. It wasn't a book I was looking forward to reading but I'm glad I did. I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.