The Drinking Game

An incisive examination into how our culture of drinking is influenced by the relationship between government, media and big business, by investigative journalist Guyon Espiner.

Four years ago, political journalist Guyon Espiner gave up drinking alcohol. He had been a heavy, yet controlled, drinker since his teens - abstaining three nights a week but making up for it the other four. One morning he woke up after a big night and decided he'd had enough and he quit - no AA, no support groups.

Guyon says the hardest thing about giving up drinking has been people's reaction to him quitting. He gets regularly grilled by people who don't understand why he has given it up completely, and in some cases, friends stopped inviting him out, assuming he wouldn't want to be around alcohol.

Not drinking has given him a new perspective on our relationship with alcohol in New Zealand, and a lot of it is disturbing. The book investigates the alcohol industry: the power, politics, and lobbying behind our most harmful drug. Weaving together personal experience, hard research and interviews, it examines why New Zealand has a heavy drinking culture, the harm it causes and how our attitudes to alcohol are changing.