Between the Pages

Basically a book of mini-biographies laced with anecdotes about some of the most famous – or infamous drunks.  With entries from as far back as Alexander the Great, most entries are about people from the 19th and 20th centuries – a few of whom are still with us.

The usual suspects are all here – Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Frank Sinatra, Robert Mitchum, Ozzy Osbourne, Francis Bacon, Tallulah Bankhead, Calamity Jane – the list goes on.

There are tales of harmless drunks, downright nasty drunks (there seemed very little to like about George C Scott, who became frighteningly violent to both men and women when drunk), fighting drunks – Sinatra and Mitchum, and drunks who threw away their career for the bottle – the tale of John Barrymore was ultimately pathetic and sad – and tragic drunks – Edgar Allen Poe, who died young and in mysterious circumstances, and Frances Farmer, a promising actress whose addiction led to horrific treatment in an asylum, are two examples.

And then there are the reformed drunks – Alice Cooper and Ozzy Osbourne to name just a couple.

I enjoyed the book – it’s certainly not taxing, and as each entry is between 3 – 7 pages long, it’s easy to skip through it quite quickly.  I would doubt the veracity of some of the tales contained within the pages – and I never realised just how many slang terms there were for the word ‘drunk’, but I’m sure they’re all in the this book!  Overall, a quick and enjoyable read.