As I worked on my review of Dušan Šarotar’s Panorama, I gathered quotations and I gathered reflections, and did my best to marry the two, one supporting the other. It took me back to my school days, my university days too, the point where writing feels more like brickwork than creativity, but generally an exercise where with a bit of thought and sweat you can produce something reasonably sturdy. Read the rest of this entry »
The twentieth century pub is not just a public house, it is a public home. A home from home. An ideal home. A broken home. It is everything you could want from a home – a refuge, a retreat, a place to entertain, a place to be alone. A place that disappoints, that you grow out of, that you leave. It is somewhere you want to improve, somewhere you never want to change. It is an extension of our identity. A window into our likes, loves, weaknesses and strengths. It is who we are, for better, for worse, richer, poorer. A home.
This is a response to Boak and Bailey’s challenge/competition to write 100 words or so on the 20th century pub, which is also the subject of their latest book.
I sometimes wonder if the archetypal English country pub really exists. There are the country pubs turned gastropubs, country pubs turned children’s play centres with a pub attached, country pubs turned inwards for a select clientele and nobody else, country pubs turned into something else entirely.
Bexley Brewery‘s Howbury range of beer is a simple idea executed brilliantly. A self-defined “development range” that allows them to try new things, make mistakes, get feedback, identify possible new stalwarts for their core range and more generally offer a bit of variety. Read the rest of this entry »
Stan Hieronymus is hosting this month’s Session, asking bloggers:
If you could invite four people dead or alive to a beer dinner who would they be? What four beers would you serve? Read the rest of this entry »
Wait until next year 