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Do people still observe the cocktail hour? Modern drinks parties are less formal than they used to be, but cocktails certainly still feature heavily. Novelist Andrew Martin discusses the sherry parties he attended at Oxford University, sometimes with disastrous consequences, and his envy of those who were ‘going on’, presumably somewhere more interesting and more glamorous. Cocktail parties sound sophisticated – is there a working-class equivalent he asks? He looks at what the young call 'pre-drinks' or ‘pre’s’, a utilitarian name for the practical business of getting drunk with one's friends on cheap wine, before heading off somewhere where wine will be more expensive and scarce. Other evening rituals are also considered. Are the supper-party with its occasionally louche associations, along with the ineffably French custom of the cinq-a-sept, in decline or are they here to stay?

The Lost Hours is a series of essays about how the day used not to be so monolithic; about how it was punctuated by rituals that lent a character to different hours. All the rituals described seem to be in decline, but none can be written off completely. And, a cheering thought, perhaps some will revive post-Covid as we rediscover the social possibilities of our days. They reflect a way of life both more leisured and more regimented, and one of their virtues might be that as well as enriching our days they actually slow them down too, and paradoxically give us more time.

Written and read by Andrew Martin
Produced by Karen Holden