I’ve said before, a challenge with reading books by people whose voices you know well (in this case, podcaster Dan Carlin) is that you read their every word in the cadence of their speech. Luckily in this case it didn’t
Clubland: How the Working Men’s Club shaped Britain
A history of the Working Mens’ Club movement, told through the eyes, experience and research of master beer writer Pete Brown: never delivering anything as dry as a pure history, but sure learns you up on a lot along the
In The Plex
Subtitled “How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives” – an interesting read this, given that it was published in 2011… so, a company biopic from 10 years ago for a company that’s very much continued aggressively evolving to present
The Distilleries of Campbeltown: The Rise and Fall of the Whisky Capital of the World
A detailed yet slightly austere/opaque history of the whisky industry in Campbeltown from around 1769 through to the early 2000s, covering the burgeoning scene to its production peak with the 29 active distilleries in 1835 and the subsequent decline following
52 Times Britain Was A Bellend
One could be forgiven for feeling a little bleak about one’s adopted country on the face of reading this – if it weren’t abundantly clear that the author had started with THOUSANDS of similar incidents and narrowed it down to
Tales from the Colony Room
The history of Soho’s Colony Room Club – a gathering place of Bohemians, artists, and free thinkers – established in 1948 by the redoubtable Muriel Belcher and closed in 2008. In that time it was home to a rollcall of
The True History of the Blackadder: The Unadulterated Tale of the Creation of a Comedy Legend
Jem Roberts dives into the story & circumstances of the genesis and development of one of the finest British sitcoms ever produced, and one which taught me most of what I know about British history (I won a game of
Bristol Pubs
A historical dig through around 45 of Bristol’s oldest pubs, covering both central buildings and further afield. A little inconsistent in its detail – some pubs turned up really interesting stories of events or people connected with the place, whereas