Afternoon Drinking

by Alan Beard

Short Story collection.
Told with unflinching honesty and compassion, Afternoon Drinking firmly establishes Beard as one of England’s finest short story writers.
‘Resolutely unsentimental but attuned to tenderness and poignancy Alan Beard is the real deal.’ Wendy Erskine
‘If you want the genuine magic, dedication and acute, gimlet-eyed perception of real literature, read Alan Beard.’ Luke Kennard
‘Visceral, honest, compelling- I was completely carried away. Beard is a rare talent; we are lucky to have him.’ Amanda Smyth

Paperback

Published November 6, 2025

About the author

Alan Beard is a short story writer with three collections 'Taking Doreen out of the Sky' (Picador 1999, also on Kindle), ‘You Don't Have to Say' (Tindal Street Press, 2010) and ‘Afternoon Drinking’ (Floodgate Press 2025). He won the Tom-Gallon award and was longlisted for the Edge Hill prize; stories in 'Best Short Stories 1991', twice in Best British Short Stories 2011 & 2024 (Salt), Best Microfiction 2024 and many places including 'Critical Quarterly', 'Malahat Review', 'London Magazine', 'Telling Stories 3' and on BBC Radio 4.

'Short cuts full of heart and beauty...It's rare to find characters like these realistically portrayed in a humane and intelligent way, and it's not easy giving a voice to the inarticulate. Alan Beard succeeds.'
The Independent.

'Beard's stories avoid cartoon terrors and verbal trickery, and instead rely for their effects on honest observation and sharp declarative sentences.. he achieves a startling poignancy'.
Times Literary Supplement.

'Rich in detail and implication.. this is a truly fine collection.'
The Times (of 'Taking Doreen out of the Sky').

'...incisive, haunting stories ...a writer who does amazing things with the fewest possible words.'
The Times (of 'You Don't Have to Say').

'Luminous and [has] a terse immediacy...Beard has an artist's eye and an original turn of phrase'.
Sunday Times.

'Beard is a true master of the form. He is a brilliant story teller, capable of wrenching beauty from the unlikeliest of circumstances... This is an excellent collection; an observational masterpiece.'
The Short Review

Please note there is more than one Alan Beard on this site. 'Historical Tweets' is not my book even though it keeps appearing on the list below.

Reviews

[Charlie Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is great. as with the stories in Beard's previous collections - and with all enduring fiction - there's more going on here than you notice at first. the sentences are unshowy but frequently exquisite, the plotting unforced but often surprising, and the prevailing sentiment - a sort of understated authenticity - is enough to suggest that much-vaunted characteristic isn't as nonsensical as it might otherwise appear.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m the author, so I’m biased. But here's what others have said:
*Update April 22nd: Review in Times Literary Supplement: https://www.the-tls.com/regular-featu...
Headline: David Lynch by way of Birmingham. Quote: "His ability to enter into the minds of his characters, however repulsive or compromised, is almost uncanny. The little worlds he creates are imbued with luminescence, which counters any encroaching sense of despair. This is an extraordinary, compelling collection."

Wendy Erskine, novelist and short story writer: "the stuff of people's lives is conveyed in these stories with precision, care and compassion. There's such richness in their documentation. Resolutely unsentimental but attuned to tenderness and poignancy, Alan Beard is the real deal."

Luke Kennard, award winning poet and novelist: “Alan Beard writes with a candour and emotional truth that almost hurts to take in, awakening our humanity and attentiveness in a way that much fiction fails to. Exhilaratingly well crafted – every sentence a precision bomb defusal, the urgent sense that if we can just cut the right wire and describe it exactly right it won’t go off and take us all with it. The voices, whether damaged, resilient, cynical or thwarted, sing off the page. Occasionally it struck me that if these works were set somewhere else they’d be translated and internationally celebrated, but we can’t quite bring ourselves to care or really pay attention to people in our own country – and actually a sense of that psychological and spiritual neglect is part of what informs these stories. There are plenty of places we can go for half-truths, for sentimental or exaggerated versions of England. If you want the genuine magic, dedication and acute, gimlet-eyed perception of real literature, read Alan Beard.”

Amanda Smyth, award winning novelist: "Like Denis Johnson, Beard takes you down—down into a world of drugs, alcohol and despair, where people teeter on the edge of spiritual or literal death. His pared down prose reads, at times, like poetry. There are little moments of beauty, transcendence; they shine like shards of mirror. Sometimes the voice feels like an incantation, a rant. There’s humour, too."

Alan Mahar, writer and publisher: "I was completely absorbed by all the stories from first to last. Utterly interesting, utterly consistent too. The empathy for people, the feel for language and the telling details of daily life and failure, pleasure too. The compressed poetic line, the supple movement within sentences. I will need at least another read to describe the full effect of these startling stories."

My third book of stories, out now. Buy from Floodgate Press: https://www.floodgatepress.co.uk/books