Authors: Kingsley Amis, Christopher Hitchens
ISBN-13: 9781596915282, ISBN-10: 1596915285
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Date Published: May 2008
Edition: Reprint
Kingsley Amis was one of the best-loved British novelists of the twentieth century. He was the author of more than twenty books, including the classic Lucky Jim. He died in 1995 at the age of seventy-three.
A gift for anyone who loves good liquor and high-proof prose: a collection of hilarious and deeply informed writings about drink from one of the all-time authorities.
Kingsley Amis was one of the great masters of comic prose, and no subject was dearer to him than the art and practice of imbibing. This new volume brings together the best of his three out-of-print works on the subject. Along with a series of well-tested recipes (including a cocktail called the Lucky Jim) the book includes Amis’s musings on The Hangover, The Boozing Man’s Diet, What to Drink with What, and (presumably as a matter of speculation) How Not to Get Drunk—all leavened with fun quizzes on the making and drinking of alcohol all over the world. Mixing practical know-how and hilarious opinionation, this is a delightful cocktail of wry humor and distilled knowledge, served by one of our great gimlet wits.
Amis published three books about the judicious but enthusiastic consumption of alcohol: On Drink, Everyday Drinking in 1983 and How's Your Glass? in 1984. Long out of print, these volumes have finally been gathered together and reissued under a single cover, topped off with a fizzy introduction by Christopher Hitchens. These books are so delicious they impart a kind of contact high; they make you feel as if you've just had the first sip of the planet's coldest, driest martini.
Introduction: The Muse of Booze Christopher Hitchens Hitchens, Christopher
I On Drink
Introduction
Drinking Literature
Actual Drinks
Tools of the Trade
The Store Cupboard
First Thoughts on Wine
Further Thoughts on Wine
Wine Shopper's Guide
What to Drink with What
Abroad
Mean Sod's Guide (Incorporating Mean Slag's Guide)
The Hangover
The Boozing Man's Diet
How Not to Get Drunk
II Every Day Drinking
III How's Your Glass?
Introduction
List of Abbreviations
Quizzes
Wine - Elementary
Wine - Intermediate
Wine - Advanced
Wine - France
Wine - Germany
Wine - Italy, Spain, Portugal
Wines - Others
Beer in General
Beer in Particular
Vodka
Aperitifs and Such
Gin
Liqueurs
Rum
Cognac and Armagnac
Brandy (One Step Down)
Distillation
Minor Spirits
Scotch Whiskey I
Scotch Whiskey II
Whiskies and Whiskeys
Port
Sherry
Madeira, Marsala and Others
Cocktails and Mixed Drinks
Inventors and Inventions
Pousse - Cafe I
Pousse - Cafe II
Pousse - Cafe III
Alcohol and Your Interior
Answers
Index