Ruth Ball (1)

The British have for thousands of years have been inventing various ways of getting drunk. We have had fruit wines, Even the Romans had vineyards. We have made apples and pears into ciders and perry's made all types of grains into beers. For a lot of people, alcohol was the only safe way to get fluids as often the water wasn't safe to drink. To really get a kick from the drink though it needs to be stronger, much much stronger.

There are various claims as to who invented distilling, some say the Egyptians, others the Greeks, but it was brought to the UK by French monks. The products of those first stills were supposed to be used for medicinal purposes, however, it didn't take long for the locals to realise there were much better uses than trying to make yourselves better. It was always a low key thing though until in 1643 the Long Parliament decided to introduce excise duty on a selection of things including spirits. This tax was universally hated and rather than become legal, lots of stills went underground and it was the beginning of a long battle against the government and the beginning of the whisky industry in Scotland and Ireland.

That most English of drinks, the G&T, is actually Dutch. Bought over when William of Orange invaded and became our monarch, we adopted it and made it our own, so much so that around one in five houses sold drams in one part of London. The political elite was watching the population slowly become drunk all the time and rather than seeing it as the symptom of poverty they saw it as the cause. So they tried to ban it. As you can imagine, it didn't quite go to plan, so they passed the Gin Act and that didn't help either…

The Irish had been distilling for a while now, but when the taxman decided that they wanted the revenue from this, then they fought back. They realised that it was easier to move poitin rather than grain around the country, devised methods to hide their little pot stills and generally didn't really want to assist the authorities in any way at all. They had ingenious ways of hiding the small stills, sometimes the easiest way was in plain sight! On top of all that, they had to try and stop the smuggling; whole coastal communities including the clergy would ensure that goods were snuck in under the noses of the excise men. With the advent of the Second World War, the government clamped down on the production of spirits diverting grain to the food needs of the country. But if you wanted a drink and happened to know the right people, you could still get your hands on a bottle. Not legally of course and the substances that were added were included with the spirits that really shouldn't have been in some cases.

Work is the curse of the drinking classes - Oscar Wilde

Ruth Ball has managed to take a wide-ranging variety of stories of alcohol and distil them into this delightful little book. I found these tales are entertaining and written with a wry sense of humour. On top of this entertaining read, she has made a collection of recipes based on the originals that were almost certainly more fun trying than making and must have been the source of a few hangovers too. If you like sitting down every now and again with a glass of something to hand, then this is a perfect accompaniment to it.… (altro)

Although it took me a while to read it, this book was really interesting. It is so full of information that I could only read one chapter at a time so I could fully digest what I had read, and spend some time sampling the alcohol I had just read about, of course.

I absolutely loved the recipes, both original and alchemist versions, although I have yet to try them out. It will be really interesting to try some authentic versions of drinks our ancestors will have supped. I'll start off with some easier ones like Egg Flip, Gimlet or Bobby Burns as some of them are really adventurous like the Blue Blazer whereby a stream of liquid fire is passed between two containers - with the author pointing out that you should make sure you have a helper to put you out if it goes wrong.

The book starts with a chapter on the origins of alcohol, but also has excellent sections on whisky, gin and poitin. I had many laugh out loud moments at the hilarity of hiding whisky from the excise officials - from whisky babies to innovative seating arrangements. I have taken great delight in telling my friends the story of the Puss and Mew shop, although having read later chapters whereby people were paralysed by illegal alcohol perhaps it wouldn't be such a good idea to drink unnamed spirit passed through a spout in a painting. Desperate times do indeed call for desperate measures and it just proves that Brits will do anything for a shot of gin.

Something else that really interested me was the hidden bars also known as secret speakeasies. From a secret bar in New York called PDT (Please Don't Tell) which you access via a phone booth in a hot dog joint to a Detective Agency in Kensington which has a bar hidden behind a secret entrance in the wall, they sound like amazing places that I would love to visit.

It's such an interesting book that I am sure I will pick it up again for many years to come. It has certainly made drinking whisky and gin much more interesting as I now have so many stories of their origins. I think the author has done a brilliant job of writing such a comprehensive history of booze, with just the right amount of history and humour.

I received this book from the publisher, Elliott & Thompson, in exchange for an honest review.… (altro)

Rebellious Spirits – Sober enough to review

Ruth Ball has written an interesting and fun book on Britain’s favourite subject – the demon drink, and I love it. The book and the demon drink that is. It is also a book while I enjoyed, and drank along with I am not sure how I can really do it justice.

From tackling the modern event of ‘pop-up bars’ (a wimpy London thing) and the occasional speakeasy which we northerners call the pub, they serve drinks that will take your breath away. While we northerners call a pint of lager and lime a cocktail, this book covers the real cocktails and spirits because we all like to go that extra yard for a good drink.

This book covers the drinks of the underworld, where things are naughtier and dirtier, where men are men, and women are hard, they all drink spirits. Not a weak kneed screwdriver but whisky or a drink of the American prohibition era such as a sidecar. Nothing but pure spirit with a splash of something to tame it a little.

Over eight chapters we are taken on a guided tour of the cocktail menu and spirits, with the British favourites of Gin and Whisky making them heard very loudly. One thing that the book does do is give you a modern interpretation of those cocktails by the Alchemist who mixes a mean drink.

I can assure you that the recipes are great as I have tried a lot of them and enjoyed all that I tried not sure that my liver is as happy though. Rebellious Spirits is a fun book, enjoyable written with a good deal of humour and facts which is a win win. This is one of the few books you can read and drink, even better as I am off for a Wartime Dry Martini, as I have all the ingredients in stock, but not for long.… (altro)