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James Bayley

Editor, Writer and Presenter

Based in London, I’m an award-winning journalist and editor with a background spanning drinks, sport, culture and lifestyle. My work has been published in titles including the Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Daily Star, MyLondon, The Drinks Business, Harpers Wine & Spirit, AS Roma Official and Football Fancast, and I've also appeared as a guest on The Wine Enthusiast Podcast.

In 2019, I was sponsored by Reach PLC to pursue a master’s in journalism at Goldsmiths, University of London, building on three years at the company in a commercial role before transitioning into the newsroom. That early experience, positioned at the intersection of editorial and marketing, continues to shape how I approach digital publishing today.

I am also the founder of Attaboy!, an independent magazine looking to reframe ideas of modern masculinity and address a few long-standing gaps in the men’s media space. I’ve had formal training in media law, and I’m confident working with tools like Photoshop and InDesign when the job calls for it.

In 2025 I was named the Alan Lodge Young International Drinks Writer of the Year by an indepedent judging panel.

The Drinks Business •

'I don't want people to buy Palestinian wines because they feel bad about Palestine'

James Bayley meets Franco-Palestinian chef Fadi Kattan and sommelier Anna Patrowicz to explore a wine region older than Burgundy, where producers navigate military checkpoints and water rationed to once every 40 days to make bottles they hope will be judged purely on what’s in the glass.
Fadi Kattan, the Franco-Palestinian chef behind akub, London’s first modern Palestinian restaurant, has spent enough time defending the idea of Palestinian terroir to know that pity is the wrong currency. Alongs...
The Drinks Business •

James Bayley named Alan Lodge Young International Drinks Writer of the Year

James Bayley of the drinks business has won the Alan Lodge Young International Drinks Writer of the Year 2025. The announcement was made at The Spirits Business Awards 2025 in London, hosted by Rob Beckett.

The award recognises emerging drinks writers aged 35 and under from across the world.
Entries are open to journalists, columnists and bloggers who write about wine, beer, spirits and or cocktails. Previous winners include Tyler Wetherall, Felipe Schrieberg and Millie Milliken.
This year’s ju...
Attaboy! •

Attaboy! Issue 1

Founded in May 2020, Attaboy specialises in life, culture and sports content that challenges the notion of masculinity. We believe that masculinity cannot be defined. To be a man is not necessarily to be strong, stoic and assertive.

We want to confront masculinity as a social construct through the exploration of race, gender and queer identities in society.

Inside our print edition, you won’t find any adverts for Rolex watches or sultry photoshoots that objectify women. Instead, you will read content that empowers men to be nurturing, caring and compassionate.
Attaboy! •

A virtual reality called FIFA, it’s in the game

Read about one man's total immersion into a football simulation game, thanks to an unlikely endorsement from the World Health Organisation.

As the U.K. initiated lockdown due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the World Health Organisation (W.H.O.) backed an initiative entitled #PlayApartTogether. This was in late March, and the scheme urged people to stay indoors and play video games.

Ironically, the W.H.O. classified ‘gaming disorder’ or video game addiction as a disease just over a year ago.

As
Attaboy! •

Dear England review: The perils of a political football

James Graham’s Dear England, which opened at The National Theatre in June 2023, follows the trials and tribulations of the England men’s football team between 2016 and 2022, amidst a backdrop of Brexit, Covid and identity politics.

It’s a promising premise for a play, presenting the state of a nation through the lens of the beautiful game. Despite this, I have always found football’s inability to translate to stage or screen, aside from one or two notable exceptions (The Damned United, Bend It
The Drinks Business •

Why raising taxes on wine won’t solve the UK’s drinking problem

If there’s one thing we Brits excel at, it’s a contradiction. We queue religiously yet love to complain about the waiting. We champion free speech yet deplore those with opposing views. And now, we drink less than ever, yet alcohol-related deaths have reached record levels.

For all the handwringing in Westminster about the perils of alcohol, the numbers tell an awkward story. In 2023, the UK registered 10,473 alcohol-specific deaths, yet alcohol consumption has been on a steady decline, especia...
The Drinks Business •

English wine’s golden age faces a tiny villain

Spotted wing drosophila has gone from curiosity to complication across English and Welsh vineyards. Once the question was whether SWD had arrived; now it is about when it will bite and how quickly it might turn ripe fruit into a rot problem. James Bayley reports.
Just as English and Welsh vineyards celebrate their ripest harvest on record, a tiny fly with an outsized appetite threatens to spoil the party. The spotted wing drosophila may be reshaping how Britain makes wine.
The 2025 vintage shoul...
Attaboy! •

Brexit and other daddy issues

United by lockdown but divided by Brexit, this first person feature explores the relationship between a son and his father in strange circumstances.

Families invariably fall out, but when politics is the cause of that rift things go up a notch. To disagree with your loved ones on how the world should be ordered conjures up all sorts of emotions, as many have discovered since lockdown.

After the Brexit referendum result, I couldn’t bear to look at my father. As a family, we epitomised the UK’s
The Drinks Business •

Medieval Wine Tour of London: a Bacchic binge through time

London: a city of soaring ambition, blue-eyed boys in finance, and – in the 14th century – a place where one could be legally force-fed soured wine as a punishment for tampering with the nation’s most sacred import. 
Dr Matthew Green’s Medieval Wine Tour of London is an intoxicating romp through the city’s oenological past, a masterful blend of history, theatre and just the right amount of alcohol to make medieval hygiene standards seem tolerable.
While modern Londoners associate alcohol with mi...
MyLondon •

Arsenal, Spurs, West Ham costing Met millions on matchdays but paying a fraction

London’s football clubs paid less than four per cent of the £8m it took to police football matches in the capital last season.

The clubs paid just £270k of the cost because of legislation which means they are only expected to pay a fee for policing inside the stadium and on their land, resulting in the taxpayer picking up the hefty £8m bill (a lower sum compared to previous seasons due to the pandemic).

The figures were obtained by My London through an FOI request.

For more news and features
The Drinks Business •

‘The role of Ozempic isn’t just about reduced consumption, it’s about a shift in values’

Weight loss medications are quietly reshaping how and why people drink, pushing alcohol towards a more selective and health-aware future. James Bayley asks whether health can be pursued without losing autonomy.

The rise of GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic is no longer a background murmur for the drinks trade. It is becoming a decisive force in how consumers approach alcohol, according to Tom Bell, founder of low-calorie alcohol retailer DrinkWell.
“We’re beginning to see signs that Ozempic and...
Harpers •

The Comfort of Another Round

The Comfort of Another Round

Thomas Vinterberg’s tale of midlife crisis, Another Round, begins with a booze-fuelled lakeside run that features beautiful teenagers sprinting and drinking in total abandonment.

Like it or not, alcohol brings people together – it is a facilitator for love and friendship. According to Norwegian psychiatrist Finn Skårderud, it also unlocks man’s potential. He suggests that humans are born with a blood alcohol level that is 0.05% too low (the equivalent of 1-2 glasse
MyLondon •

'I wasn’t showering or eating properly' - Gaming addict played 12 hours a day

A former video games addict who would "fall asleep on his keyboard" during daily 12 hour sessions is now helping young people who are struggling, as stats show an NHS clinic for gaming disorders is seeing more patients than ever before.

It comes after the (W.H.O.) endorsed an initiative entitled #PlayApartTogether, to encourage people to stay indoors and play video games during lockdown.

Since then, the number of teenagers playing video games around the country has soared.

The NHS clinic for
The Drinks Business •

How Gen Z turned BuzzBallz into the UK’s pre-drink essential

The cult American cocktail ball has become a British Gen Z staple, especially among students seeking bar-strength pre-drinks with Instagram appeal. Now it’s the fastest-growing RTD brand in the UK, fuelled by TikTok virality and bold branding.

BuzzBallz may have launched in Texas back in 2009, but the UK wasn’t properly introduced to the technicolour cocktail spheres until 2022. Their distribution and influence gained momentum rapidly following Sazerac’s takeover in early 2024. Since then, the...
Attaboy! •

Ten classical pieces to listen to before you’re 30

The latest instalment of our 'before you're 30' series concerns classical music. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but a browse of our list below could inspire a new lifelong passion, or elevate your pub quiz game.

For a lot of newcomers to classical music, film scores have been a useful gateway. Spotify is awash with “workout” playlists featuring the music of Hans Zimmer, a composer so mainstream, he is now a regular on the music festival circuit.

Lockdown is the perfect time to become more acq
The Drinks Business •

The worst places to store wine at home

From the top of the fridge to the back of the garage, many homes unwittingly subject wine to conditions that hasten its decline. In the first of a two-part series, two experts explain to db where bottles suffer most and why good intentions so often end in disappointment.

Wine is a living thing, so says Robb Denomme, founder and CEO of Genuwine Cellars, and like any living thing, it prefers comfort over drama. “Temperature, light and vibration all affect how it ages. Store it incorrectly, and yo...
The Drinks Business •

Tequila’s purity problem under scrutiny

As a legal case challenges what “100% agave” really means, producers and regulators face growing calls for greater transparency. Industry veteran Brent Hocking weighs in on the standards, semantics and future of premium tequila.

A class-action lawsuit filed earlier this month against Diageo in New York has sparked renewed scrutiny of what Tequila producers mean when they label their bottles “100% agave”. The legal complaint alleges that two of the drinks giant’s flagship brands, Casamigos and D...
The Drinks Business •

How the wine industry is addressing labour standards in vineyards

As scrutiny of vineyard labour practices intensifies, James Bayley explores how the Champagne region — led by Comité Champagne — is working with state authorities, growers and service providers to strengthen protections for seasonal workers and uphold the industry’s reputation.

While seasonal work is a long-established and essential part of viticulture, evolving expectations around social sustainability have prompted producers and institutions alike to reassess not only their responsibilities b...
AS Roma Offical •

A tribute to one of football’s few remaining greats

Football in Italy is a religion and its home is Rome. This, much to the dismay of Lazio fans, makes Francesco Totti a God amongst men.

The Italian is one of the finest players of his generation but one who has always resisted the temptation to leave Roma to earn more money with another team.

Totti is Roman through and through - the King of Rome in the eyes of many.

Even at the ripe old age of 39, he remains the self-proclaimed persecutor of Lazio with the strength of a soldier and the strut o
Attaboy! •

Diego Maradona Review

During the lockdown, many of us have had to adapt to life without football. Thankfully, we are in the midst of a golden age for sports documentaries, and Diego Maradona by Asif Kapadia is as good as it gets.

Kapadia has produced the most significant portrait of a footballer ever committed to screen. Using a treasure trove of archive footage we meet Diego, a shy mummy’s boy confined to a shantytown on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. He has nothing to offer but his capacity for resilience and burg