Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview
  • A Short History of Drunkenness

  • By: Mark Forsyth
  • Narrated by: Richard Hughes
  • Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (232 ratings)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

A Short History of Drunkenness

By: Mark Forsyth
Narrated by: Richard Hughes
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of A Short History of Drunkenness by Mark Forsyth, read by Sh*tfaced Shakespeare's Richard Hughes.

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.

©2017 Mark Forsyth (P)2017 Penguin Audio
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Word Perfect cover art
Ask a Historian cover art
Quirkology cover art
Wine. All the Time. cover art
A Classical Education cover art
The Drunken Botanist cover art
History of Russia cover art
Dent's Modern Tribes cover art
222 QI Answers to Your Quite Ingenious Questions cover art
A Brief History of Vice cover art
Following the Equator cover art
Imbibe! Updated and Revised Edition cover art
The Qur'an cover art
Empire of Booze cover art
How to Be a Brit cover art
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England cover art

What listeners say about A Short History of Drunkenness

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    163
  • 4 Stars
    50
  • 3 Stars
    13
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    151
  • 4 Stars
    36
  • 3 Stars
    12
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    142
  • 4 Stars
    43
  • 3 Stars
    12
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting and entertaining

This touches on women’s rights, politics, hypocrisy and was surprisingly fascinating. The narrator is engaging and I was able to listen to listen to the whole book in a couple of days which rarely happens to me with audible books.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The Most Delightful Audiobook I've Read In Ages

This audiobook is sheer, laugh-out-loud joy! Brilliant narrator, amusingly written and full of fascinating insights.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting, witty and very funny.

Brilliantly narrated and a great source of interesting alternative history. I raise a glass to the author and the performance.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Hilarious and Fascinating

I loved everything about this book except it ending. The Narrator, Richard Hughes, does much to enhance the content and I found myself laughing out loud a lot, not to mention wanting to pour myself a glass of wine! I am sure I shall go on to listen to it again. Warmly recommended.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A fantastic insight into the genesis of beer

It's good to know the genesis of our civilisation and how our cultures came to be. Rather than living the trend not knowing why we do it. If you want to know, have a listen. This knowledge even helped me to change my drinking habits.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Highly amusing and informative

An utterly charming book and am now also resolved to never do anything as stupid as to give up alcohol again.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

facinating

love it more than alcohol.shows how much humanity relays on chemicals to go through the day.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful. Just brilliant.

A joyful, enlightening and uplifting book. Each chapter is a gem and the writing is exceptional. The narration is as close to perfect as you’ll find. I think you’ll gather that I loved this audiobook. You will too, especially if you like a drink a bit too much, you’ll find some catharsis here along with the laughs and numerous ‘I-must-remember-that-for-the-lads-in-the-pub’ facts.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

best not taken too seriously

This book is a good laugh though i suspect that history has been bent a bit out of shape with this one. Not sure if the translations are accurate either. it’s just a bit of a laugh and not to be taken too seriously. if you want a serious study of druniikennes better to avoid this one i thnk but it’s short, easily done in one sitting.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book

This is so informative and interesting.
Who knew drinking was so important to us? Not individually but as a building block towards civilisation.
Loved it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!