We British have many idiosyncratic behaviours that have been commented upon with admiration, bemusement or contempt by other nations, and perhaps none more so than our drinking habits. I have often thought in earlier times that there was a peculiar joylessness to British drinking. The Parisians can sit on the boulevards outside their cafes in that effortlessly stylish way sipping red wine, smoking Gauloises and talking about ennui; their neighbours to the east can uproariousl
