Fifty Ways to Leave Your Liver: Confessions of an Unjustified Drinker

Working as a journalist in Glasgow in the 1970s and 80s should have carried a health warning. For Tom Shields, the daily mission was to produce an amusing diary to entertain the readers of the Herald newspaper, and with the generous weekly expenses, or ‘drink vouchers’, this was done mostly from the pub. It was fun but could it last? In Fifty Ways to Leave Your Liver, Tom Shields now tells the real story behind the stories and what the arduous business of seeking out humorous tales and anecdotes was like. There was the ‘leaving your jacket on your chair’ ploy to show that you were ‘at work’, the meetings with ‘contacts’ (anyone who happened to be in the pub) and the serious commitment to an alternative lifestyle. Until the day a doctor spoiled all the fun. Tom Shields now confesses all – the fun, the laughs, the cosy stop drinking-or-you-will-die chat – and tries to work out if it’s possible to turn your life around. It might have worked for that other diarist Samuel Pepys who said, ‘Since my leaving the drinking of wine, I do find myself much better,’ but could it really work in Glasgow?