Clifford Sharp

Society

Humbug

• 25 September 2006

Taken from the New Statesman archive, March 17 1923 Editors naturally write best about subjects they know well, and sadly Sharp knew rather too much about drink, which a few years later would render him incapable of doing his job. But he was absolutely right about this piece of humbug, as we know well. Despite the efforts of Nancy Astor and the temperance lobby, teenage drinking would not go away. Selected by Brian Cathcart