Letter: Boozer's blues

MAY I ADD a postscript to Philip Norman's wonderful profile of 'The British Drunk' (27 December). I was a drunk once, and a priest at the same time. An unfortunate combination, of course.

Behind the laughter is always a fear: a drunk, like the fool in literature, mirrors so much of our well-hidden selves - the irrationalities, the violence, the much soiled underwear. And then behind the fears lies the ineffable sadness of a daily darkening life.

Aled Jones-Williams

Liverpool