{"product_id":"in-love-with-hell-drink-in-the-lives-and-work-of-eleven-writers","title":"In Love with Hell : Drink in the Lives and Work of Eleven Writers","description":"In Love with Hell is a fascinating and beautifully written account of the lives of eleven British and American authors whose addiction to alcohol may have been a necessary adjunct to their writing but ruined their lives. Palmer's succinct biographies contain fine descriptions of the writers, their work and the times they lived in; and there are convincing insights into what led so many authors to take to drink.'PIERS PAUL READWhy do some writers destroy themselves by drinking alcohol? Before our health-conscious age it would be true to say that many writers drank what we now regard as excessive amounts. Graham Greene, for instance, drank on a daily basis quantities of spirits and wine and beer most doctors would consider as being dangerous to his health.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e But he was rarely out of control and lived with his considerable wits intact to the age of eighty-six. W. H.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e Auden drank the most of a bottle of spirits a day, but also worked hard and steadily every day until his death. Even T. S.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e Eliot, for all his pontifical demeanour, was extremely fond of gin and was once observed completely drunk on a London Tube station by a startled friend. These were not writers who are generally regarded as alcoholics. 'Alcoholic' is, in any case, a slippery word, as exemplified by Dylan Thomas's definition of an alcoholic as 'someone you dislike who drinks as much as you.' The word is still controversial and often misunderstood and misapplied.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e What acclaimed novelist and poet William Palmer's book is interested in is the effect that heavy drinking had on writers, how they lived with it and were sometimes destroyed by it, and how they described the whole private and social world of the drinker in their work. He looks at Patrick Hamilton ('the feverish magic that alcohol can work'); Jean Rhys ('As soon as I sober up I start again'); Charles Jackson ('Delirium is a disease of the night'); Malcolm Lowry ('I love hell. I can't wait to go back there'); Dylan Thomas ('A womb with a view'); John Cheever ('The singing of the bottles in the pantry'); Flann O'Brien ('A pint of plain is your only man'); Anthony Burgess ('Writing is an agony mitigated by drink'); Kingsley Amis ('Beer makes you drunk'); Richard Yates ('The road to Revolutionary Road'); and Elizabeth Bishop ('The writer's writer's writer').\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFormat: Paperback \u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e Published: UK, 2022\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLanguages: English \u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e Pages: 272\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e ISBN 13: 9781472144997\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e ISBN 10: 1472144996\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"William Palmer","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43661287489802,"sku":"","price":13.95,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/6066\/3399\/products\/9781472144997.jpg?v=1659875499","url":"https:\/\/www.shakespeareandsons.com\/products\/in-love-with-hell-drink-in-the-lives-and-work-of-eleven-writers","provider":"Shakespeare \u0026 Sons Buchhandel GmbH","version":"1.0","type":"link"}