I too enjoyed this piece and could relate to, well, all of it apart from the hair straighteners. I spent a year on an exchange programme at a university in Ita

I too enjoyed this piece and could relate to, well, all of it apart from the hair straighteners. I spent a year on an exchange programme at a university in Italy, and found that 1) the Brits were by far the worst drinkers (followed by the Americans), and 2) the Italians had absolutely no concept of buying a round of drinks (I think they do have the phrase "bere in giro" but I'm not sure now if this was just a literal translation of the English without any genuine cultural meaning) - and the difference this makes is striking. While the author talks about Peak Booze being over, the drinking culture in London is still pretty appalling, and not just dominated by people in their thirties (who should, like me, be the Peak Booze generation described in the article). I do see an improvement in younger people (late teens, early twenties), I think, who seem to have much less interest in smoking and to drink a bit more in moderation than we did - but I'm not confident that those same people in five years in London won't be out drinking to excess three or four nights a week too.