20 things you might not have known about drunkenness

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Features

The Hidden Stories Behind Our Yuletide Traditions

A Christmas Cornucopia

BY THE SUNDAY TIMES NO.1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR 
 
The perfect gift for anyone who has ever wondered about the unpredictable origins and etymologies of our Christmas customs! 
 
 For something that happens every year of our lives, we really don't know much about Christmas. 
 
 We don't know that the date we celebrate was chosen by a madman, or that Christmas, etymologically speaking, means "Go away, Christ". We're oblivious to the fact that the advent calendar was actually invented by a Munich housewife to stop her children pestering her for a Christmas countdown. And we would never have guessed that the invention of crackers was merely a way of popularising sweet wrappers. 
 
 Luckily, like a gift from Santa himself, Mark Forsyth is here to unwrap this fundamentally funny gallimaufry of traditions and oddities, making it all finally make sense - in his wonderfully entertaining wordy way. 
 
'Witty and revelatory. Blooming brilliant' Raymond Briggs 
 
 'Everything we ever thought about Christmas is wrong! Great stuff' Matthew Parris

Witty and revelatory. Blooming brilliant

Everything we ever thought about Christmas is wrong! Great stuff

Mark imparts knowledge about Christmas traditions from the essential to the (very) abstruse in wry and sardonic style. An effortless and enjoyable way to learn more about this fulcrum of our calendar

Paul Smiddy, Former Head of pan-European retail research, HSBC

Mark Forsyth wears his considerable knowledge lightly. He also writes beautifully

David Marsh, on 'The Elements of Eloquence'

This year's must-have stocking filler ... the essential addition to the library in the smallest room is Mark Forsyth's The Etymologicon.

With his casual elegance and melodious voice, Mark Forsyth has an anachronistic charm totally at odds with the 21st century (The Horologicon)

[The Etymologicon is] a perfect bit of stocking filler for the bookish member of the family, or just a cracking all-year-round-read. Highly recommended.

As good as promised - could have been thrice as long

Ben Schott, on 'The Elements of Eloquence'

Born in London in 1977, Mark Forsyth (a.k.a The Inky Fool) was given a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary as a christening present and has never looked back. His book The Etymologicon was a Sunday Times Number One Bestseller and his TED Talk 'What's a snollygoster?' has had more than half a million views. He has also written a specially commissioned essay 'The Unknown Unknown' for Independent Booksellers Week and the introduction for the new edition of the Collins English Dictionary. He lives in London with his dictionaries, and blogs at blog.inkyfool.com.

For something that happens every year of our lives, we really don't know much about Christmas. 
 
We don't know that the date we celebrate was chosen by a madman, or that Christmas was first celebrated on 28 March in 243 AD - and only moved to 25 December in 354 AD. We're oblivious to the fact that the advent calendar was actually invented by a Munich housewife to stop her children pestering her for a Christmas countdown. We're unaware of the recipe that inspired the Twelve Days of Christmas. And we would never have guessed that the invention of crackers was merely a way of popularizing sweet wrappers. 
 
Luckily, like a gift from Santa himself, Mark Forsyth is here to unwrap this fundamentally funny gallimaufry of traditions and oddities, making it all finally make sense - in his wonderfully entertaining wordy way.

Mark Forsyth

My favourite book of this and possibly any other Christmas is Mark Forsyth's A Short History of Drunkenness

Forsyth's jokes are snappy and well delivered. Unlike most comical writers he never falls into the trap of confusing long-windedness with irony

Haha! . . . Highly suitable for Xmas!

This entertaining study of drunkenness makes for a racy sprint through human history

A brisk and brilliant romp through our hiccoughing history, drenched with wit. Bloody marvellous from first sip to last burp

Jason Hazeley, co-author of the Ladybird series (including 'The Ladybird Book of the Quiet Night In' and 'The Ladybird Book of the Hangover'

Reading like a TED talk delivered by a stand-up comedian, this made me laugh out loud more than my first ever night out on absinthe. As essential as a hip flask or a pack of pork scratchings for any true connoisseur of booze. A Short History of Drunkenness is this year's Châteauneuf-du-Pape of Christmas books, no less. Bloody entertaining.

Emlyn Rees, author of 'The Very Hungover Caterpillar' and 'We're Going on a Bar Hunt'

Sometimes you see a book title that simply gladdens the heart. Everyone I showed this book to either smiled broadly or laughed out loud . . . This is a book of some brilliance - probably best consumed with a restorative glass of something by your side.

As Mark Forsyth brilliantly shows, civilisation is built on booze. Egypt (beer), Greece and Rome (wine) depended on alcohol to create their mighty works. Where man drinks, he prospers, and vice versa. A toast to this spirits-fuelled spirits-lifter. Staggering!

I thought I knew quite a bit about drinking but A Short History of Drunkenness made me look at inebriation anew. Each chapter amazed, challenged and stimulated me so much that I needed a stiff drink at the end of it.

Henry Jeffreys, author of Empire of Booze

With a great eye for a story and a counterintuitive argument, Mark Forsyth has enormous fun breezing through 10,000 years of alcoholic history in a little more than 250 pages.

Well researched and recounted with excellent humour, Forsyth's alcohol-ridden tale is sure to reduce anyone to a stupor of amazement.

This charming book proved so engrossing that while reading it I accidentally drank two bottles of wine without realising.

Rob Temple, author of Very British Problems

Matthew Parris on 'A Christmas Cornucopia'

Mark Forsyth wears his considerable knowledge lightly. He also writes beautifully

This year's must-have stocking filler ... the essential addition to the library in the smallest room is Mark Forsyth's The Etymologicon

Paul Smiddy, Former Head of pan-European retail research, HSBC, on 'A Christmas Cornucopia'

With his casual elegance and melodious voice, Mark Forsyth has an anachronistic charm totally at odds with the 21st century

Sunday Times South Africa on'The Horologicon'

[The Etymologicon is] a perfect bit of stocking filler for the bookish member of the family, or just a cracking all-year-round-read. Highly recommended

A treat for the connoisseur who enjoys a robust anecdote from the past with his drink

Almost every culture on earth has drink, and where there's drink there's drunkenness. But in every age and in every place drunkenness is a little bit different. It can be religious, it can be sexual, it can be the duty of kings or the relief of peasants. It can be an offering to the ancestors, or a way of marking the end of a day's work. It can send you to sleep, or send you into battle. 
 
 A Short History of Drunkenness traces humankind's love affair with booze from our primate ancestors through to Prohibition, answering every possible question along the way: What did people drink? How much? Who did the drinking? Of the many possible reasons, why? On the way, learn about the Neolithic Shamans, who drank to communicate with the spirit world (no pun intended), marvel at how Greeks got giddy and Romans got rat-arsed, and find out how bars in the Wild West were never quite like in the movies. 
 
 This is a history of the world at its inebriated best.

Mark Forsyth

Praise for A Short History of Drunkenness

My favourite book of this and possibly any other Christmas is Mark Forsyth's A Short History of Drunkenness

Forsyth's jokes are snappy and well delivered. Unlike most comical writers he never falls into the trap of confusing long-windedness with irony

Haha! . . . Highly suitable for Xmas!

My favourite book of this and possibly any other Christmas is Mark Forsyth's A Short History of Drunkenness

Forsyth's jokes are snappy and well delivered. Unlike most comical writers he never falls into the trap of confusing long-windedness with irony

Haha! . . . Highly suitable for Xmas!

My favourite book of this and possibly any other Christmas is Mark Forsyth's A Short History of Drunkenness

Forsyth's jokes are snappy and well delivered. Unlike most comical writers he never falls into the trap of confusing long-windedness with irony

Haha! . . . Highly suitable for Xmas!

Books by Mark Forsyth

Articles featuring Mark Forsyth

20 things you might not have known about drunkenness

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