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Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amis
A celebratory volume of writings by the late author of Lucky Jim includes favorite pieces on such topics as hangovers, food-and-drink combinations, and (presumably) how to avoid getting drunk, in a collection complemented by cocktail recipes.
118 pages, Hardcover
First published September 20, 1984
About the author
Kingsley Amis
151 books511 followersBest known novels of British writer Sir Kingsley William Amis include
Lucky Jim
(1954) and
The Old Devils
(1986).
This English poet, critic, and teacher composed more than twenty-three collections, short stories, radio and television scripts, and books of social and literary criticism. He fathered Martin Amis.
William Robert Amis, a clerk of a mustard manufacturer, fathered him. He began his education at the city of London school, and went up to college of Saint John, Oxford, in April 1941 to read English; he met Philip Larkin and formed the most important friendship of his life. After only a year, the Army called him for service in July 1942. After serving as a lieutenant in the royal corps of signals in the Second World War, Amis returned to Oxford in October 1945 to complete his degree. He worked hard and got a first in English in 1947, and then decided to devote much of his time.
Pen names: [authorRobert Markham|553548] and William Bill Tanner
This English poet, critic, and teacher composed more than twenty-three collections, short stories, radio and television scripts, and books of social and literary criticism. He fathered Martin Amis.
William Robert Amis, a clerk of a mustard manufacturer, fathered him. He began his education at the city of London school, and went up to college of Saint John, Oxford, in April 1941 to read English; he met Philip Larkin and formed the most important friendship of his life. After only a year, the Army called him for service in July 1942. After serving as a lieutenant in the royal corps of signals in the Second World War, Amis returned to Oxford in October 1945 to complete his degree. He worked hard and got a first in English in 1947, and then decided to devote much of his time.
Pen names: [authorRobert Markham|553548] and William Bill Tanner
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 178 reviews
September 5, 2009
A very nice birthday present from Jordan! The first half of the book is a hilarious manual on how to spend your life drunk. I couldn't wait to get started. Amis's technical knowledge, especially when it comes to spirits and mixed drinks, is impressive. Also his ability to avoid bullshit.
____________________________________________
We got our courage together and tried making Ernest Hemingway's signature cocktail, the fabulous Death in the Afternoon. It's very simple: put one measure of absinthe in a champagne glass, and then top up with champagne. An interesting point, which Amis somehow fails to mention, is that the absinthe stops the champagne from foaming, so it's easy to fill the glass up to the top.
Hemingway recommended drinking three to five glasses to get the full effect. I had one, and although I thought it was delicious I decided to stop there - I wanted to be still in shape to appreciate the Sauterne we were going to have with dessert. Our neighbor Don amazed us all by having a second glass of Death, and then three glasses of Sauterne with the blue cheese and figs. But he's an aspiring novelist. Maybe it goes with the territory?
____________________________________________
We got our courage together and tried making Ernest Hemingway's signature cocktail, the fabulous Death in the Afternoon. It's very simple: put one measure of absinthe in a champagne glass, and then top up with champagne. An interesting point, which Amis somehow fails to mention, is that the absinthe stops the champagne from foaming, so it's easy to fill the glass up to the top.
Hemingway recommended drinking three to five glasses to get the full effect. I had one, and although I thought it was delicious I decided to stop there - I wanted to be still in shape to appreciate the Sauterne we were going to have with dessert. Our neighbor Don amazed us all by having a second glass of Death, and then three glasses of Sauterne with the blue cheese and figs. But he's an aspiring novelist. Maybe it goes with the territory?
Want to read
June 21, 2017The Muse of booze.
April 27, 2013
“Note You really have to use bourbon. The Rye Old-Fashioned is not too bad; the Irish version just tolerable; the Scotch one not worth while.” Exactly. And never mind the rye snobs suddenly all about, I was once twitted by my best friend’s wife for not specifying brandy – because that’s how the Old-Fashioned was made in 1890s New Orleans, you see. She has a meaty ass, big long-toed feet, and she paints. I loathe her in an amiable, intermittently lustful, sitcom-like way.
There’s not much to do but quote him. This passage decided my purchase:
When me and the aforementioned best friend are trudging through snow drifts toward a bar, heads down, breasting the Arctic blast, grapeshot by ice pellets, one of us will inevitably cry out – and the other will sustain his fellow by shouting “Stalingrad, [those fuckers had it so much worse at] Stalingrad.” And then we laugh and punch shoulders. We’re dorks – but men love challenges, tests of fortitude. Surveying my current situation, I see that the challenges I have chosen are: the weather (the Northern pedestrian-busgoer is congeneric with the Homeless Guy; stout boots, sturdy packs, with negligible nuances of cost); booze (consoling yet treacherous); a long-term relationship (the Ikea-floorlamp-shadowy dim domestic stalemate); and the infinite mutability of the English sentence. Kingsley and Martin clashed over style. Kingsley is unimpeachable, but safe.
There’s not much to do but quote him. This passage decided my purchase:
You get hold of a half litre of vodka and what’s probably harder to come by in a socialist county, three paper cups. Perhaps the grocer will let you stand in his shop, anyway you find someplace where the wind isn’t blowing and you drink the vodka, quite fast I expect, and then you go home. And that’s your night out with the lads.
In its way I find the thought of that almost as depressing as anything to do with the Gulag or mental hospitals. Remember it when the juke box in the pub is too loud or they can’t do you a Harvey Walbanger.
When me and the aforementioned best friend are trudging through snow drifts toward a bar, heads down, breasting the Arctic blast, grapeshot by ice pellets, one of us will inevitably cry out – and the other will sustain his fellow by shouting “Stalingrad, [those fuckers had it so much worse at] Stalingrad.” And then we laugh and punch shoulders. We’re dorks – but men love challenges, tests of fortitude. Surveying my current situation, I see that the challenges I have chosen are: the weather (the Northern pedestrian-busgoer is congeneric with the Homeless Guy; stout boots, sturdy packs, with negligible nuances of cost); booze (consoling yet treacherous); a long-term relationship (the Ikea-floorlamp-shadowy dim domestic stalemate); and the infinite mutability of the English sentence. Kingsley and Martin clashed over style. Kingsley is unimpeachable, but safe.
August 24, 2018
Una parte di sagacia
Una parte di cultura
Due parti di british humor
Uno schizzo di misoginia, un cucchiaino raso di antiretorica, cazzonaggine a cubetti.
Il libro perfetto per questa estate un po’ così.
Una parte di cultura
Due parti di british humor
Uno schizzo di misoginia, un cucchiaino raso di antiretorica, cazzonaggine a cubetti.
Il libro perfetto per questa estate un po’ così.
August 12, 2008
This cute recollection of Kingsley Amis' newspaper columns on the life of a professional drunk is edited by Christopher Hitchens (friend of son Martin and resident avatar of English alcoholism in American letters). The writing is gin-saturated -- themes recurring in their wet wit seem half-remembered; the prose seems dictated, with the loose, conversational imprecision of a drunk and self-satisfied autodidact. But what else would you want, let alone expect, from a collection of brief High English epistles on the art of staying drunk, often on ridiculous cocktails, for half a century?
One humorous theme is Amis' blithe and recurring dismissal of wine as a legitimate category for the professional "drink man" -- a great phrase that we teetotalers from the leeward side of the Atlantic ought to appropriate. Wine for Amis is a kind of French shell game played on the English, who are better off, in Amis' reckoning, staying true to their "real Ale" and London gin.
Throughout, Amis plays the faux cabala of wine appreciation off the purer secrets of the booze aficionado, but his own understanding and taste are warily suspect: after months of columns disparaging the new lager culture ruining English pubs and praising the virtues of "real Ale", Amis settles into effusive praise for cans of Carlsberg. There are also eccentricities of taste one might blame generally on England rather than poor Kingsley: gin, he lies, is at its best served warm with water; ketchup is the key to a perfect Bloody Mary; sangria is made with wine and soda.
Perhaps the most pleasant aspect of the book is Kingsley's shameless embrace of drunkenness. Now five long decades past the three martini lunch, it is a helpful tonic to our woeful American obsession with sobriety and the self-immolating fires of hyper-productivity to remember that once Knights of the British Crown drank from morning to night and still managed to keep their Empire on the rails.
One humorous theme is Amis' blithe and recurring dismissal of wine as a legitimate category for the professional "drink man" -- a great phrase that we teetotalers from the leeward side of the Atlantic ought to appropriate. Wine for Amis is a kind of French shell game played on the English, who are better off, in Amis' reckoning, staying true to their "real Ale" and London gin.
Throughout, Amis plays the faux cabala of wine appreciation off the purer secrets of the booze aficionado, but his own understanding and taste are warily suspect: after months of columns disparaging the new lager culture ruining English pubs and praising the virtues of "real Ale", Amis settles into effusive praise for cans of Carlsberg. There are also eccentricities of taste one might blame generally on England rather than poor Kingsley: gin, he lies, is at its best served warm with water; ketchup is the key to a perfect Bloody Mary; sangria is made with wine and soda.
Perhaps the most pleasant aspect of the book is Kingsley's shameless embrace of drunkenness. Now five long decades past the three martini lunch, it is a helpful tonic to our woeful American obsession with sobriety and the self-immolating fires of hyper-productivity to remember that once Knights of the British Crown drank from morning to night and still managed to keep their Empire on the rails.
November 21, 2008
Had I been sentient (and British) during the 1970s, I'm sure I would have been a huge admirer of Amis's weekly newspaper musings on the art and science of drinking. I can definitely see how the constituent parts of this book would work well as columns.
But they fall flat in the anthology format, in large part because Amis is so darn repetitious. We hear the same bon mots re: Scotch time and again, for example. And the first third of the book contains nothing save for wittily phrased drink recipes, none of which I'll be making anytime soon (with the possible exception of Hot Buttered Rum 'round Xmastime).
The quiz section at the end conveys a few snippets of useful information, but most of the trivia is, well, too trivial. Not to mention outdated and, in some cases, just plain wrong--there is virtually no mention of New World wines, for example, and Amis contends that sake is meant to be served warm.
Amis is obviously an excellent, extremely influential writer--I now understand where Anthony Lane copped his style. I'll check out Lucky Jim, for sure, but I can't recommend "Everyday Drinking" unless you're really, really, really serious about your hooch. And who has time for that? Just set me up with a Maker's Mark on the rocks, and let's be done with the pointy-headed musings, shall we?
But they fall flat in the anthology format, in large part because Amis is so darn repetitious. We hear the same bon mots re: Scotch time and again, for example. And the first third of the book contains nothing save for wittily phrased drink recipes, none of which I'll be making anytime soon (with the possible exception of Hot Buttered Rum 'round Xmastime).
The quiz section at the end conveys a few snippets of useful information, but most of the trivia is, well, too trivial. Not to mention outdated and, in some cases, just plain wrong--there is virtually no mention of New World wines, for example, and Amis contends that sake is meant to be served warm.
Amis is obviously an excellent, extremely influential writer--I now understand where Anthony Lane copped his style. I'll check out Lucky Jim, for sure, but I can't recommend "Everyday Drinking" unless you're really, really, really serious about your hooch. And who has time for that? Just set me up with a Maker's Mark on the rocks, and let's be done with the pointy-headed musings, shall we?
March 18, 2009
I truly believe you need only two drinks books in your life: one that tells you about every drink you could possibly make, and one that tells you about what you would want to drink. The first is useful in the case that an honored guest asks for a Detroit Motor City or something (I live in fear of moments like this); the second, while narrower in scope, is infinitely more practical because everything in it is actually good.
Everyday Drinking has captured a permanent spot as my second-category book. This is of course subjective – I have a special soft spot for drinks that are awful-sounding and/or old-fashioned; you may not – but I really can’t recommend this enough, because besides many excellent recipes, there are herein dozens of near-sociopathic tips for how to make, serve, economize on, and best enjoy drinks. You call this “enabling”, I call a coherent philosophy of life. And it’s written by a writer! It really does take a Booker Prize-winner to put to paper thoughts like “The first, indeed the only requirement of a diet is that it should lose you weight without reducing your alcoholic intake by the smallest degree.” Cheers, I say. Hic! Ahem.
Everyday Drinking has captured a permanent spot as my second-category book. This is of course subjective – I have a special soft spot for drinks that are awful-sounding and/or old-fashioned; you may not – but I really can’t recommend this enough, because besides many excellent recipes, there are herein dozens of near-sociopathic tips for how to make, serve, economize on, and best enjoy drinks. You call this “enabling”, I call a coherent philosophy of life. And it’s written by a writer! It really does take a Booker Prize-winner to put to paper thoughts like “The first, indeed the only requirement of a diet is that it should lose you weight without reducing your alcoholic intake by the smallest degree.” Cheers, I say. Hic! Ahem.
June 26, 2008
let's allow a great 20th century dandy and wit to review this book better than i ever could...
Here is a story about a sinner,
He used to be a winner, who enjoyed a life of prominence and position.
But the pressures at the office and his socialite engagements,
And his selfish wife's fanatical ambition,
It turned him to the booze,
And he got mixed up with a floosie
And she led him to a life of indecision.
The floosie made him spend his dough
She left him lying on skid row
A drunken lag in some salvation army mission.
It's such a shame.
Oh demon alcohol!
Sad memories I cannot recall,
Who thought I would say,
Damn it all and blow it all.
Oh demon alcohol!
Memories I cannot recall,
Who thought I would fall a slave to demon alcohol.
Barley wine, pink gin,
He'll drink anything,
Port, pernod or tequila.
Rum, scotch, vodka on the rocks,
As long as all his troubles disappeared.
But he messed up his life and he beat up his wife,
And the floosies gone and found another sucker.
Shes gonna turn him on to drink
Shes gonna lead him to the brink
And when his money's gone
She'll leave him in the gutter.
It's such a shame.
Oh demon alcohol!
Sad memories I cannot recall,
Who thought I would fall,
A slave to demon alcohol.
Here is a story about a sinner,
He used to be a winner, who enjoyed a life of prominence and position.
But the pressures at the office and his socialite engagements,
And his selfish wife's fanatical ambition,
It turned him to the booze,
And he got mixed up with a floosie
And she led him to a life of indecision.
The floosie made him spend his dough
She left him lying on skid row
A drunken lag in some salvation army mission.
It's such a shame.
Oh demon alcohol!
Sad memories I cannot recall,
Who thought I would say,
Damn it all and blow it all.
Oh demon alcohol!
Memories I cannot recall,
Who thought I would fall a slave to demon alcohol.
Barley wine, pink gin,
He'll drink anything,
Port, pernod or tequila.
Rum, scotch, vodka on the rocks,
As long as all his troubles disappeared.
But he messed up his life and he beat up his wife,
And the floosies gone and found another sucker.
Shes gonna turn him on to drink
Shes gonna lead him to the brink
And when his money's gone
She'll leave him in the gutter.
It's such a shame.
Oh demon alcohol!
Sad memories I cannot recall,
Who thought I would fall,
A slave to demon alcohol.
December 8, 2011
Written with an abundance of style and dry wit, this is a very entertaining and informative book. Everything (and more) you ever wanted to know about liquor, beer and wine is probably in here along with some good laughs. One caveat - don't read this on a kindle. There is a long quiz section which would require flipping back and forth between sections. If anybody knows how to do this on a Kindle please let me know. When I got my Kindle a month or two ago I knew there had to be some drawbacks. This is the first serious flaw I've found.
October 10, 2017
A moderately amusing and informative collection of newspaper columns written by a jaunty, hail-fellow-well-met type of chap. I would like to go drinking with this guy, he knows everything about every kind of liquor and includes some cocktail recipes I’m dying to try out.
Analyzes Kafka’s Metamorphosis as a metaphor for a hangover (you wake up feeling & looking like hell, and everyone hates you). Made my day.
Analyzes Kafka’s Metamorphosis as a metaphor for a hangover (you wake up feeling & looking like hell, and everyone hates you). Made my day.
March 26, 2014
Kingsley Amis is grumpy, curmudgeonly, unapologetically British, and wonderful in this book. These qualities, together with a combination of the two things about which he is most passionate--drink, and the English language (specifically, the "correct" use of the English language)--make it a pleasure to read. He is dry and hilarious, knows his subject well (but will dismiss any shortcomings of knowledge as "unimportant" or "boring" matters, anyway), and writes in a way that makes you feel like you're talking with him over a couple of glasses, and that you're agreeing with what he's saying--or at least you want to agree with him (or risk being labeled a peasant).
Of course, it helps if the reader already has an interest in drink and its lore, and if he also has some experience in the subject. Some of his recipes only make sense if one is on his drinking regimen, that is to say, four or five before lunch (and it just goes on, as you can imagine, from there).
I will say, thought, that the star I excluded from an otherwise five-star review disappears as a result of the last section's "quizzes". One would have to be very dedicated to the subject or very curious to know in what year such-and-such distillation device was first used, et cetera. On the other hand, I read it all, because his insulting wit pervades even the question-and-answer exercise, and I didn't want to miss it.
One more thing: This is not a "wine-heavy" book, thank heavens. He has a lot of contempt, in fact, for {especially would-be} wine connoisseurs, and in his economy, the thought of a wine-taster spitting out perfectly good alcohol when they could be swallowing it betrays them as an idiot.
Of course, it helps if the reader already has an interest in drink and its lore, and if he also has some experience in the subject. Some of his recipes only make sense if one is on his drinking regimen, that is to say, four or five before lunch (and it just goes on, as you can imagine, from there).
I will say, thought, that the star I excluded from an otherwise five-star review disappears as a result of the last section's "quizzes". One would have to be very dedicated to the subject or very curious to know in what year such-and-such distillation device was first used, et cetera. On the other hand, I read it all, because his insulting wit pervades even the question-and-answer exercise, and I didn't want to miss it.
One more thing: This is not a "wine-heavy" book, thank heavens. He has a lot of contempt, in fact, for {especially would-be} wine connoisseurs, and in his economy, the thought of a wine-taster spitting out perfectly good alcohol when they could be swallowing it betrays them as an idiot.
July 5, 2012
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. I'd heard about this book for years and finally got down to reading it. It's easy to see where Martin Amis got his wit. Kingsley intersperses hilarious alcohol-related short stories, along with his own well-tested recipes – some named after his famous novels, like “Lucky Jim,” and others named after friends, like “Evelyn Waugh’s Noonday Reviver” – and rather helpful musings on subjects like The Hangover (“a piece of selfless research, undertaken by a pioneer”), The Boozing Man’s Diet, What to Drink with What, and How Not to Get Drunk. It's a great primer for those wanting to learn more about wine, beer and spirits, complete with a massive test at the end. Some of my favorite quotes:
On hangovers:
"The abolition of the hangover would have far-reaching and perhaps dangerous effects on our civilization; a great restraining influence would be gone."
"If the old, grey cloud no longer vanishes as if by magic at the first touch of alcohol, as it once did, you know that middle age is upon you."
And, the two sure cures for a hangover: "Half an hour in an open aeroplane and a stint at the coal face on the early shift."
On tequila:
"It's a white spirit made from a tropical plant that sometimes gets called a cactus, though consensus seems to be that it isn't a cactus, though very like one. There we are, then."
When BSing your way around a wine list:
"If this goes wrong, say suddenly, 'I don't suppose any of you chaps have seen last year's French government report on wine manufacture?' Which is pretty safe, since there wasn't one."
On hangovers:
"The abolition of the hangover would have far-reaching and perhaps dangerous effects on our civilization; a great restraining influence would be gone."
"If the old, grey cloud no longer vanishes as if by magic at the first touch of alcohol, as it once did, you know that middle age is upon you."
And, the two sure cures for a hangover: "Half an hour in an open aeroplane and a stint at the coal face on the early shift."
On tequila:
"It's a white spirit made from a tropical plant that sometimes gets called a cactus, though consensus seems to be that it isn't a cactus, though very like one. There we are, then."
When BSing your way around a wine list:
"If this goes wrong, say suddenly, 'I don't suppose any of you chaps have seen last year's French government report on wine manufacture?' Which is pretty safe, since there wasn't one."
November 5, 2023
ahhh, writers and booze. as close a combination as soup and a spoon, knife and a fork, sun and the moon, comment sections and moronic behavior.
a tale as old as time.
the relationship of creative people with alcohol has always been a curious one. we know many an enthusiast in the space - so much so we often ponder whether or not it actually was the drink that made them the creative stallwart they were. we also know many an addict, however, and usually that’s where our knowledge ends. with the hemingways, the faulkners, all those writhed away in the sea of addiction and coping with something they couldn’t handle without a glass of something.
i picked this up because a) i knew of kingsley amis and b) i thought this would be a nice source material for a presentation on the specifics of british drinking culture. oh boy it was.
that was nearly half a year ago, however. i only ended up including a small slice in my presentation - if only the time limits would adjust depending on how much i actually have to say about a subject - and didn’t read much further than part one, a very thorough couple of essays on drinking. i suppose that this awareness and incredible attention to detail was not something i expected, but i’m really glad i received it - for this is probably the best book on drinking i have read.
bukowski’s posthumous collection pales in comparison to what this is. having had the opportunity to write a column on drink every week (part two) most certainly helped, where as bukowski just columned as a ‘dirty old man’. what you do consistently makes you, i suppose, and thinking about drinking outweighed drinking for kingsley amis, i think. bukowski was all practicals. kingsley was a theorist at heart, and i believe myself to fall into that category, too.
part three comes with a whole lot of quizzable material to determine your level of expertise on drinking. now, i’ll never be as knowledgeable on drinking as kingsley amis - i have no aspiration to be nor do i want to drink so much alcohol - but i certainly feel more advanced in understanding taste and opinion in general.
and even if all you take from this book is the habit of asking yourself “why do i like or dislike this?”, that’s a very powerful thing indeed.
cause then you get to write rambly reviews on the internet.
a tale as old as time.
the relationship of creative people with alcohol has always been a curious one. we know many an enthusiast in the space - so much so we often ponder whether or not it actually was the drink that made them the creative stallwart they were. we also know many an addict, however, and usually that’s where our knowledge ends. with the hemingways, the faulkners, all those writhed away in the sea of addiction and coping with something they couldn’t handle without a glass of something.
i picked this up because a) i knew of kingsley amis and b) i thought this would be a nice source material for a presentation on the specifics of british drinking culture. oh boy it was.
that was nearly half a year ago, however. i only ended up including a small slice in my presentation - if only the time limits would adjust depending on how much i actually have to say about a subject - and didn’t read much further than part one, a very thorough couple of essays on drinking. i suppose that this awareness and incredible attention to detail was not something i expected, but i’m really glad i received it - for this is probably the best book on drinking i have read.
bukowski’s posthumous collection pales in comparison to what this is. having had the opportunity to write a column on drink every week (part two) most certainly helped, where as bukowski just columned as a ‘dirty old man’. what you do consistently makes you, i suppose, and thinking about drinking outweighed drinking for kingsley amis, i think. bukowski was all practicals. kingsley was a theorist at heart, and i believe myself to fall into that category, too.
part three comes with a whole lot of quizzable material to determine your level of expertise on drinking. now, i’ll never be as knowledgeable on drinking as kingsley amis - i have no aspiration to be nor do i want to drink so much alcohol - but i certainly feel more advanced in understanding taste and opinion in general.
and even if all you take from this book is the habit of asking yourself “why do i like or dislike this?”, that’s a very powerful thing indeed.
cause then you get to write rambly reviews on the internet.
February 28, 2009
This is a reprint of three of Kingsley Amis's classic gin-soaked volumes:
On Drink
,
How's Your Glass
(a quiz book), and
Every Day Drinking
(a title that boy Martin found clever if not hilarious, and which remains a source of confusion here on GoodReads [as it's apparently merged with this here collection:]).
Amis appears here in three boozy guises: mixologist, advice columnist, and know-it-all. All are witty and fascinating -- even when he's phoning it in, his prose is taut and immaculate. The various drinks recipes in On Drink might turn your stomach -- if you're from Minnesota -- but his careful descriptions and reckless hints might encourage you to get up and try one or two. Put milk in the ice cube tray the night before? Sure! Send some two-inch long cucumber cuttings through a manual lemon squeezer? Right on, Lucky Jim! Fun to read as you're popping open your next Pabst Blue Ribbon anyway... And you will not believe what Queen Victoria was drinking daily! (It involves a mixture of red wine and scotch) (and yes it was probably John Brown's idea).
As for the inevitable hangover, Amis in advice-columnist guise suggests that you should have (hopefully consensual) intercourse ("as vigorously as you can") with your sackmate to cure the metaphysical pain. We've all been there, haven't we? Can any one of us say that this actually works? Then he adds this: "Do not take the matter into your own hands if you wake by yourself."
He also concocts a "boozing man's diet," which nobody should try unless they desire to turn into a stooped skeleton hung with veined sacks of fat. It involves saccharin (the actual carcinogenic!), mustard, eggs, Worcester sauce, cheese, grapefruit, poultry, and onions. For some reason bread and toast are not allowed. If the handsome young Communist Kingsley was living off this diet for so many years, it's no wonder he was an bigoted reactionary blimp by the time he decided to publish it.
So yeah, as long as you don't take this stuff too seriously, you will be entertained. The quizzes in How's Your Glass are quite challenging and engaging to boot. Plus the intro to Every Day Drinking includes one of my favorite quotes about editors:
Amis appears here in three boozy guises: mixologist, advice columnist, and know-it-all. All are witty and fascinating -- even when he's phoning it in, his prose is taut and immaculate. The various drinks recipes in On Drink might turn your stomach -- if you're from Minnesota -- but his careful descriptions and reckless hints might encourage you to get up and try one or two. Put milk in the ice cube tray the night before? Sure! Send some two-inch long cucumber cuttings through a manual lemon squeezer? Right on, Lucky Jim! Fun to read as you're popping open your next Pabst Blue Ribbon anyway... And you will not believe what Queen Victoria was drinking daily! (It involves a mixture of red wine and scotch) (and yes it was probably John Brown's idea).
As for the inevitable hangover, Amis in advice-columnist guise suggests that you should have (hopefully consensual) intercourse ("as vigorously as you can") with your sackmate to cure the metaphysical pain. We've all been there, haven't we? Can any one of us say that this actually works? Then he adds this: "Do not take the matter into your own hands if you wake by yourself."
He also concocts a "boozing man's diet," which nobody should try unless they desire to turn into a stooped skeleton hung with veined sacks of fat. It involves saccharin (the actual carcinogenic!), mustard, eggs, Worcester sauce, cheese, grapefruit, poultry, and onions. For some reason bread and toast are not allowed. If the handsome young Communist Kingsley was living off this diet for so many years, it's no wonder he was an bigoted reactionary blimp by the time he decided to publish it.
So yeah, as long as you don't take this stuff too seriously, you will be entertained. The quizzes in How's Your Glass are quite challenging and engaging to boot. Plus the intro to Every Day Drinking includes one of my favorite quotes about editors:
There's no such thing as a non-cutting editor; it's not in the nature of the beast. The fellow prowls through your copy like an overzealous gardener with a pruning hook, on the watch for any phrases he senses you were rather pleased with, preferably one that also clinches your argument and if possible is essential to the general drift of the surrounding passage.
October 23, 2011
Kingsley Amis was notorious for liking a good drink. He was a Scotch man, but found ways to appreciate all drink. Except maybe wine. He was self-admittedly clueless about wine. Shame. This book is a collection of his boozy writings, and even a pub-style trivia quiz section.
Of most interest to my bookish friends is the section "Hangover Reading." Seriously, this book is worth it just for his literature rundown. To whet your appetite, he mentions Paradise Lost and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
Anyway, on Saturday night we decided to try one of his more delicious sounding drink recipes/descriptions. (His recipes were really more about the commentary on its effects or origins or place in society.) Here's the makings for an Old Fashioned:
And the result:
It was yummy and balanced - a definite add to our regular rotation. I have to admit though that we didn't do the full 3oz of Bourbon. We cut it back to 2. In general Amis was keen on minimizing the mix-ins, and maximizing the alcohol content high. A little too high for my taste, even though we had some fabulous Labrot & Graham Woodford Reserve thanks to our generous friends.
I had to deduct a star for the old-fashioned sexist nature of the book. Amis and his musings were a product of his time. Luckily it didn't diminish too much from the hilarious quotable gems. Such as:
"And most experts will tell you that the bloom begins to fade from a martini as soon as it is first mixed, which may be pure subjectivism, but, in any drinking context, subjectivism is very important."
"You will find it a splendid pick-me-up, and throw-me-down, and jump-on-me. Strongly dis-recommended for mornings after."
Finally I give you Amis's rebuttal on the widely held belief that mixing alcohols gives you a wicked hangover the next day:
"An evening when you drink a great deal will also be one when you mix them." QED
Of most interest to my bookish friends is the section "Hangover Reading." Seriously, this book is worth it just for his literature rundown. To whet your appetite, he mentions Paradise Lost and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
Anyway, on Saturday night we decided to try one of his more delicious sounding drink recipes/descriptions. (His recipes were really more about the commentary on its effects or origins or place in society.) Here's the makings for an Old Fashioned:
And the result:
It was yummy and balanced - a definite add to our regular rotation. I have to admit though that we didn't do the full 3oz of Bourbon. We cut it back to 2. In general Amis was keen on minimizing the mix-ins, and maximizing the alcohol content high. A little too high for my taste, even though we had some fabulous Labrot & Graham Woodford Reserve thanks to our generous friends.
I had to deduct a star for the old-fashioned sexist nature of the book. Amis and his musings were a product of his time. Luckily it didn't diminish too much from the hilarious quotable gems. Such as:
"And most experts will tell you that the bloom begins to fade from a martini as soon as it is first mixed, which may be pure subjectivism, but, in any drinking context, subjectivism is very important."
"You will find it a splendid pick-me-up, and throw-me-down, and jump-on-me. Strongly dis-recommended for mornings after."
Finally I give you Amis's rebuttal on the widely held belief that mixing alcohols gives you a wicked hangover the next day:
"An evening when you drink a great deal will also be one when you mix them." QED
January 2, 2012
I don't often laugh out loud at books. Perhaps it's because I don't typically read funny books. But Amis' Everyday Drinking had me giggling like a kid, almost more often than I'm comfortable bragging about, and annoying my partner by reading passages aloud and frequently quoting my new knowledge about both alcohol and Britishisms, both of which we both enjoy.
To extend a metaphor, Everyday Drinking contains both long drinks and short drinks, and its not suitable for consuming all in one long stretch. Compiled from both books on the subject and a series of short articles originally printed in periodicals, the book does indeed repeat itself; however, that's easily gotten over by not reading the thing all in a row. Part I is suitable for sipping all day long on a Sunday when you have nothing pressing to bother you, like gins and tonics. Part II, the newspaper column bit, can be taken in small doses when one needs a short mental holiday, like a beer at the end of the day--you can have one or two, or down the six-pack. But you can't do these all day long without getting a good deal tired and bored. Part III is full of quizzes, and like Sangria or Planter's Punch, is probably best when shared with others.
The best and the worst thing I can say about this book is that it made me want to drink. It made me want to find a cocktail so good I would want to write about it. It made me know I could and would enjoy the journey to finding it.
To extend a metaphor, Everyday Drinking contains both long drinks and short drinks, and its not suitable for consuming all in one long stretch. Compiled from both books on the subject and a series of short articles originally printed in periodicals, the book does indeed repeat itself; however, that's easily gotten over by not reading the thing all in a row. Part I is suitable for sipping all day long on a Sunday when you have nothing pressing to bother you, like gins and tonics. Part II, the newspaper column bit, can be taken in small doses when one needs a short mental holiday, like a beer at the end of the day--you can have one or two, or down the six-pack. But you can't do these all day long without getting a good deal tired and bored. Part III is full of quizzes, and like Sangria or Planter's Punch, is probably best when shared with others.
The best and the worst thing I can say about this book is that it made me want to drink. It made me want to find a cocktail so good I would want to write about it. It made me know I could and would enjoy the journey to finding it.
March 17, 2017
The problem with collecting 3 short books on the same topic by the same author in the same work, especially when the books are actually collections of newspaper columns, is that it can become very repetitive, as is the case here. Moreover, the topic being alcoholic beverages, seen by a huge fan in his British context of the 1970-1980s, a lot of the information given is outdated and even a bit shortsighted.
On the other hand, Kingsley Amis is witty, not afraid to say what he wants to say (pre-political correctness), at his best when he gives advice on how and what to serve when throwing a dinner party or when analysing the hangover. His observations of the evolution of the pub are interesting, as is the information about the drinks he clearly knows a lot about (whiskey and gin).
My rating : 2=It´s OK, for I read it in 2017; I´m sure I would have appreciated it a lot more in newspaper column form, especially the last part (quizzes with the answers at the end of the book) which I find hard to enjoy in a reading book.
On the other hand, Kingsley Amis is witty, not afraid to say what he wants to say (pre-political correctness), at his best when he gives advice on how and what to serve when throwing a dinner party or when analysing the hangover. His observations of the evolution of the pub are interesting, as is the information about the drinks he clearly knows a lot about (whiskey and gin).
My rating : 2=It´s OK, for I read it in 2017; I´m sure I would have appreciated it a lot more in newspaper column form, especially the last part (quizzes with the answers at the end of the book) which I find hard to enjoy in a reading book.
February 16, 2010
"Kirja on sulosointuinen alkoholin ylistyslaulu" sanoi Ilta-Sanomat ja täytynee yhtyä tähän. Valitettavasti vain tuntui siltä, että kehno ja huolimaton suomennos/toimitus pilasi puolet nautinnosta. Siispä suosittelen, että se joka lasin lisäksi tarttuu tähän kirjaan, etsii käsiinsä alkuperäisen englanninkielisen teoksen - ja nautinto on taattu. Cheers!
December 28, 2010
Is there a better companion for the holidays than a witty overly-sauced Brit? Not only is this book read-out-loud-to-anyone-who'll-listen funny, it also helps parse out the difference between the physical and the metaphysical hangover.
October 28, 2008
Great short pieces about liquor and drinking, best read by the shot rather than guzzled by the yard.
August 20, 2009
This is really more of a "bathroom book," to be picked up every now and then to read one of the essays. I really liked the writing and the humor but not really designed to be read straight through.
January 27, 2009
A little like being stuck at a party with an alcohooic curmudgeon.
September 3, 2020
Kingsley Amis seems to have all the trappings of a posh Tory Old Fart: moaning about loud music, love of cocktails, extreme pedantry about words (he once said that anybody who used the word ‘transportation’ should be sentenced to it). It comes as a surprise to see in his Wiki entry that his Dad is described as a ‘clerk’ by profession, and that Kingsley was once a member of the Communist Party. I mention it because Amis must have been one of the first English writers not only to enjoy but to celebrate aspects of lowbrow culture (Fleming, Jazz) as well as highbrow (Milton, Mozart). When a man is a wine connoisseur but also genuinely appreciates beer – and even curry – he has my attention (his son Martin went one better by professing an interest in Man United).
Curiously Kingsley’s Wiki entry is quiet about where he went to school; in Britain this, and specifically whether you are privately or publicly schooled, is the decisive fact about someone’s background. I still bet it was the former. And yet, on further reflection, there is something arriviste about his anxiety to be right about everything. He can’t just drink and enjoy it, it has to be the right drink; and the right books, the right music, etc. These are the feelings of a creative / intellectual type who finds himself somewhat above his original social station because of his talent.
The sense of the Right Thing pervades this anthology, and in fact is its keynote. The plums in the pudding are The Mean Sod’s Guide (incorporating the Mean Slag’s Guide) and The Hangover. These are among the most entertaining essays of the C20th (and yet, like all the best comedy, at heart they are quite serious); Christopher Hitchens’ desperate and unavailing efforts to live up to this standard in his Introduction only emphasises the fact. But most of the book is a basically serious exposition of how to have the Right drink in the Right way. And then – just to make sure the lesson has gone home – you get a hundred pages of quiz questions and answers about booze! I kid you not.
Amis’ gusto about both what he does and doesn’t like makes it, on the whole, worth reading. Ignore the blurbs: this is not derisive for the most part, and certainly is not about pub culture (to which Amis says ‘something horrible has happened’) but mainly about the drinks per se. It’s a curiosity, that’s what it is. One minute you’re applauding him, the next you’re shaking your head. That, in buying wine, you get what you pay for: in my experience that’s the biggest bit of kidology of them all. Amis recognises the type of wine-lover who is only pretending out of snobbery; but, when it comes down to it, is there any other sort? Does anyone really, honestly love the stuff? He even admits that after all the palaver trying to impress his guests he ends up not enjoying the wine himself. I’m no wine buff, but that has never happened to me with a pint of Holt’s. Now with beer, you really do get what you pay for.
Curiously Kingsley’s Wiki entry is quiet about where he went to school; in Britain this, and specifically whether you are privately or publicly schooled, is the decisive fact about someone’s background. I still bet it was the former. And yet, on further reflection, there is something arriviste about his anxiety to be right about everything. He can’t just drink and enjoy it, it has to be the right drink; and the right books, the right music, etc. These are the feelings of a creative / intellectual type who finds himself somewhat above his original social station because of his talent.
The sense of the Right Thing pervades this anthology, and in fact is its keynote. The plums in the pudding are The Mean Sod’s Guide (incorporating the Mean Slag’s Guide) and The Hangover. These are among the most entertaining essays of the C20th (and yet, like all the best comedy, at heart they are quite serious); Christopher Hitchens’ desperate and unavailing efforts to live up to this standard in his Introduction only emphasises the fact. But most of the book is a basically serious exposition of how to have the Right drink in the Right way. And then – just to make sure the lesson has gone home – you get a hundred pages of quiz questions and answers about booze! I kid you not.
Amis’ gusto about both what he does and doesn’t like makes it, on the whole, worth reading. Ignore the blurbs: this is not derisive for the most part, and certainly is not about pub culture (to which Amis says ‘something horrible has happened’) but mainly about the drinks per se. It’s a curiosity, that’s what it is. One minute you’re applauding him, the next you’re shaking your head. That, in buying wine, you get what you pay for: in my experience that’s the biggest bit of kidology of them all. Amis recognises the type of wine-lover who is only pretending out of snobbery; but, when it comes down to it, is there any other sort? Does anyone really, honestly love the stuff? He even admits that after all the palaver trying to impress his guests he ends up not enjoying the wine himself. I’m no wine buff, but that has never happened to me with a pint of Holt’s. Now with beer, you really do get what you pay for.
November 16, 2021
If you’re picking this up you’re probably already a fan of Kingers, who is the star of the show and of course needs very little introduction. His slightly curmudgeonly, and always hilarious writing style extends to his thinking on booze about which he knows a lot, although I recall from Martin Amis’ biography ’Experience’ his favoured tipple was the vagabonds favourite Tennants Special Brew which is prized for its ABV:Strength ratio alone. So perhaps heroes have feet of clay, what?
Listen: I wouldn’t recommend this. Because even though it’s funny, and reasonably educational, it is assembled from his scribblings for newspaper columns and a lot of the stuff therein is repetitive. If you’re trying to learn more about booze or more about Amis senior you my find your ends also defeated because of the age of the material, much of which is lifted straight out of the late 70s and and 80s and pertains only to England.
The truth is the gourmet scene has changed much in the booze world, particularly in the UK. France has been absolutely knocked off It’s pedestal as the worlds go to for quality wine. Australia and California have entered long ago but get barely a mention in this tome. As for recipes for cocktails - yes they are there but use old or outdated measures, and can be far more easily spun up with just the standard cocktail shaking set you are likely to have at home these days. His advice on how to serve a dinner party with booze is unfailingly hilarious but the prices are miles off in this book now. And who needs a wine merchant these days to get access to a quality drop??
So while it’s funny, yes, and still worth a read, it shows it’s age dramatically and as such I wouldn’t bother particularly. The last eighth of the book is just quizzes which really don’t allow you to absorb much more of kingers’ hilarity.
So do yourself a favour and go read Lucky Jim instead - or if you want to know more about the man Kingsley I hear his collected letters are fabulous.
Listen: I wouldn’t recommend this. Because even though it’s funny, and reasonably educational, it is assembled from his scribblings for newspaper columns and a lot of the stuff therein is repetitive. If you’re trying to learn more about booze or more about Amis senior you my find your ends also defeated because of the age of the material, much of which is lifted straight out of the late 70s and and 80s and pertains only to England.
The truth is the gourmet scene has changed much in the booze world, particularly in the UK. France has been absolutely knocked off It’s pedestal as the worlds go to for quality wine. Australia and California have entered long ago but get barely a mention in this tome. As for recipes for cocktails - yes they are there but use old or outdated measures, and can be far more easily spun up with just the standard cocktail shaking set you are likely to have at home these days. His advice on how to serve a dinner party with booze is unfailingly hilarious but the prices are miles off in this book now. And who needs a wine merchant these days to get access to a quality drop??
So while it’s funny, yes, and still worth a read, it shows it’s age dramatically and as such I wouldn’t bother particularly. The last eighth of the book is just quizzes which really don’t allow you to absorb much more of kingers’ hilarity.
So do yourself a favour and go read Lucky Jim instead - or if you want to know more about the man Kingsley I hear his collected letters are fabulous.
March 17, 2021
Kingsley was quite a character and passed in 1995 after writing many novels but this book is about drinking of course. Strong opinions on the decline of pub culture in England and wine. A few that I found funny:
Music in the pub is awful. You either hate it in which case you expend energy ignoring it. Or you like it which distracts you from the main reason for being in the pub: to talk to the person you are with.
the purpose of a dinner party is to screw your guests while seeming, at least to their wives, that you have done them rather well. Your objective is a quarrel on the way home between each husband and wife, he disparaging your hospitality, she saying you were very sweet and thoughtful and he is just a frustrated drunk.
Mezcal is the nastiest stuff. Hard to imagine something more downmarket than tequila. Head was filled with a test of garage or repair shop, hot rubber and plastic, burnt oil and a whiff of hydrochloric acid vapor .
Pina Coladas are for low IQ women, fresh from a spell on the back of a motorcycle, to suck at while her escort plunges grunting at the fruit machine (slot machine). Mind you, he'll be no ornament to his sex either, quite likely clutching a lager and lime- an exit application from the human race if there ever was one.
Music in the pub is awful. You either hate it in which case you expend energy ignoring it. Or you like it which distracts you from the main reason for being in the pub: to talk to the person you are with.
the purpose of a dinner party is to screw your guests while seeming, at least to their wives, that you have done them rather well. Your objective is a quarrel on the way home between each husband and wife, he disparaging your hospitality, she saying you were very sweet and thoughtful and he is just a frustrated drunk.
Mezcal is the nastiest stuff. Hard to imagine something more downmarket than tequila. Head was filled with a test of garage or repair shop, hot rubber and plastic, burnt oil and a whiff of hydrochloric acid vapor .
Pina Coladas are for low IQ women, fresh from a spell on the back of a motorcycle, to suck at while her escort plunges grunting at the fruit machine (slot machine). Mind you, he'll be no ornament to his sex either, quite likely clutching a lager and lime- an exit application from the human race if there ever was one.
July 3, 2023
Now here's a book that a certain Austrian painter and teetotaller would have burned in a heartbeat. A light-hearted and humorous book on drinking culture and etiquette from one of the great English literary drunks of the 20th century. (Apparently not slowing down with age, Amis senior would knock back a whole bottle of single malt a day towards the end of his life). I would imagine this being a popular book back then in the clubhouses of those posh tory boys. I can't say I'm tempted by any of the unique recipes on offer (from the Queen Victoria’s Tipple - half a tumbler of red wine mixed with a load of Scotch, to Evelyn Waugh’s Noonday Reviver - a shot of gin mixed with ginger beer and a half pint of Guinness), but, fear not, I if was, and ended up getting wasted on those, then maybe Churchill's hangover antidote (one brace cold snipe and a pint of port) would be the answer to drag me back from an Amis/Waugh alcoholic blackout. Thanks, but no thanks! I'll stick to my tequila zombies.
August 9, 2020
When I say I'm finished I mean I've read the articles and baulked at the silly quizzes at the back, which means I've read to page 198.
Not that I have anything against quizzes, it's just that, and I ask this honestly, can you really read a quiz? The brain has to work in an entirely different way, stop, start, go to the back of the class, advance to the front, or worse, soldier on with no success and end up thoroughly depressed.
Reading a good book should be the polite way an author imparts their experience, which is a nice way of saying educating the ignorant. A quiz either rubs your nose in it or confirms you didn't need to read the bloody thing in the first place and have wasted money that could have otherwise been spent on a good night out.
Everyday Drinking will remain on my shelf, nonetheless, because it is a jolly good reference book for topers wishing to engage in a show of oneupmanship.
Not that I have anything against quizzes, it's just that, and I ask this honestly, can you really read a quiz? The brain has to work in an entirely different way, stop, start, go to the back of the class, advance to the front, or worse, soldier on with no success and end up thoroughly depressed.
Reading a good book should be the polite way an author imparts their experience, which is a nice way of saying educating the ignorant. A quiz either rubs your nose in it or confirms you didn't need to read the bloody thing in the first place and have wasted money that could have otherwise been spent on a good night out.
Everyday Drinking will remain on my shelf, nonetheless, because it is a jolly good reference book for topers wishing to engage in a show of oneupmanship.
April 23, 2023
Bit outdated, but one can still enjoy the droll pronouncements. Plenty of trivia on anything booze related is presented here. The book falls comfortably in the category of bathroom reading. It’s a tolerably good manual for some not so common and strange cocktails (Lucky Jim, Kinger, Polish blood, etc.), but useless otherwise as any other sort of manual. It’s more a humor book. Lots of weird stuff are mixed in and it particularly includes a large section of recycled newspaper articles (on booze) that he wrote in the 70-80s (I guess).
Not sure Kingsley Amis had the best taste in cocktails, he seems to err on the sweeter + boozier side of things and doesn’t like anything spicy (his Bloody Mary, judging by proportions, is an outright disgusting watery potion). When he wrote the book, tequila was exotic in England. Some of the jokes he makes are painfully colorless and way past their expiration date by now.
Not sure Kingsley Amis had the best taste in cocktails, he seems to err on the sweeter + boozier side of things and doesn’t like anything spicy (his Bloody Mary, judging by proportions, is an outright disgusting watery potion). When he wrote the book, tequila was exotic in England. Some of the jokes he makes are painfully colorless and way past their expiration date by now.
December 28, 2023
I've only read a few chapters straight through - come on, it's a semi-reference book - and on that basis it's interesting to me as a fan of Amis, of booze, and of Amis on booze; but I found it not as much fun to read as I expected, though that could be because I was nursing a stomach bug instead of the expected festive sub-hangover that I'd expected for the time I had chosen to semi-read this.
But with that disclaimer made, I found it a bit heavy-handed and unappetising, the demon boozemania protruding from under the genial host's party hat (or something - bear with me, I'm not quite recovered yet). I feel Amis's version of bonhomie is very much in thrall to his determination to get smashed - I say that with some empathy, but that doesn't mean I approve.
I had to put the book aside, along with the tumbler of scotch, the half-drunk mimosa, the ill-advised white negroni and all. Maybe I'll come back to it and to this some other time.
But with that disclaimer made, I found it a bit heavy-handed and unappetising, the demon boozemania protruding from under the genial host's party hat (or something - bear with me, I'm not quite recovered yet). I feel Amis's version of bonhomie is very much in thrall to his determination to get smashed - I say that with some empathy, but that doesn't mean I approve.
I had to put the book aside, along with the tumbler of scotch, the half-drunk mimosa, the ill-advised white negroni and all. Maybe I'll come back to it and to this some other time.
January 10, 2024
Having been completely unfamiliar with the work and style of Kingsley Amis, and more interested in finding cocktail recipes wherever I could, I picked this up on a whim at a used book store and have, for the most part, been quite pleased with my purchase. The book is made up of three sections, all tinged with what I'm told is Amis's signature wit and cynicism. The first is a standalone book, and tries to cover all aspects of drinking, while the second is a collection of newspaper columns, many of which tread similar ground but have the upside of giving Amis a chance to do a mailbag towards the end, giving the reader a better sense of the variety of opinions on drink. The third section is the most disappointing- it is a collection of quizzes written by Amis, which ends up adding very little new information and is mostly just annoying to try and flip through. Thankfully, it's completely ignorable, and in future re-reads I have no plans to expect the third section to be any more interesting. There are places where I found myself disagreeing with Amis, in some cases because his advice or thinking is 50 years old, but still found the experience of the book as a whole to be good. Amis's writing style may not be for everyone, and the subject matter isn't either, but Everyday Drinking is absolutely worth reading if neither of those are an obstacle- both as a book and as a window into history.
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