Sisyphean Quick Fix review – affecting account of uphill family struggles
UK shortage of drug used to prevent brain damage in alcoholics
‘I went straight to whisky at 14’: David Ireland on tackling booze on stage
The Outrun review – ambitious staging of Amy Liptrot’s Orkney addiction memoir
July 2024
The German thirst for beer is waning – it’s not cool to be drunk any more
Nicholas Potter
From Berlin’s techno scene to Oktoberfest, a revolution in drinking culture is taking place, and it’s led by young people, says Nicholas Potter
In the box
What is FASD, and why do so many children with it end up in Australia’s justice system?
Vulnerable young people and communities concerned about crime would both benefit from better screening and support for foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, experts say
Grud review – sliding floors as teenager’s two worlds collide
In Sarah Power’s emotionally acute three-hander, 17-year-old Bo struggles to keep her father’s alcoholism a secret from her new college friend
June 2024
Southern frontlines: Latin America and the Caribbean
‘They die like flies’: Intibucá in Honduras has an alarming alcohol problem – can prohibition and tough love fix it?
The state is renowned for its culture – and sky-high alcohol-related death rate. Health workers, local government and a pastor on a mission are trying to halt the damage caused by cheap booze and a macho culture
Weekend
A Guardian Blind Date happy ending, the boy who fled the Nazis, and Philippa Perry’s advice on an alcoholic father – podcast
The Guardian lockdown love story that ended in ‘I do’; the incredible story of Maxwell Smart, who lost his family in the Holocaust at 10 and avoided detection from the Nazis for two years; and Philippa Perry advises a reader not to invite his alcoholic father to his wedding.
Ask Philippa
I don’t want to invite my alcoholic dad to my wedding
Trust your gut instinct about not having him there. The shame that is creeping in may be about pressure to conform
May 2024
Weekend
Stephen Merchant on his ‘preposterous’ trajectory; the trouble with the Zoe nutrition app; and when does drinking become a problem? – podcast
Comedian, writer and actor Stephen Merchant on standup, fame and the pressures of cancel culture; testing the ‘world-leading science’ claims behind the Zoe nutrition app; and the point when writer Harriet Tyce realised she didn’t want to be remembered only as a drinker
Self and wellbeing
‘I was 49 when I had my last drink’: Harriet Tyce
After drinking and making a fool of herself for 35 years, the writer realised that’s not how she wanted to be remembered
Is it right to force someone into rehab? The man whose life inspired a landmark law
Ricky Klausmeyer-Garcia’s friends struggled to get him addiction treatment, leading to a law in his name. Profound questions remain about how best to help those with substance use disorder
April 2024
I spent 22 years as a problem drinker. Here are 10 things I’ve learned since I quit
Britain has a problem that it won’t face up to: children’s dangerous relationship with alcohol
Gary Nunn
‘I know my limit’: how gen Z became Britain’s ‘sober-curious’ generation
It’s 20 years since the UK hit ‘peak booze’. The hangover is still with us
Great Britain has worst rate of child alcohol consumption in world, report finds
It’s a grotesque insult for Back to Black to suggest Amy Winehouse died of heartache over her childlessness
Laura Snapes
March 2024
I stopped drinking three months ago – it’s not as simple as the internet makes it look
Ashe Davenport
Influencer sobriety is a world where alcohol addiction is history, but it’s all too neat