Would Queen Victoria have been good value over a pint? Where can you find the most northerly pub in the UK? Which pub was run by a member of the mafia?

Britain is famed, above all else, for two things: a great literary tradition, and truly superb pubs. It should naturally follow that there are lots of great books about pubs, right? Wrong.

Now, we are correcting that with this miscellany of the fascinating, the quirky, the exciting, the novel and the downright odd that you will want to sit down with a pint and dive in. Here you'll find stories, quirks, essays, deep-dives, listicles and more - everything but the pint - for you to immerse yourself in the wonderful, weird, funny and witty history of British pubs.

Collected by The Fence, with contributions from the brilliant Tom Parker Bowles, William Hanson, John Banville, Róisín Lanigan, Clive Martin, Katy Hessel and many more.

The Independent's 2017 Book of the Year and a 2020 London Eater recommended read for lockdown 'If Malcolm Gladwell were to write a book about wine, the results wouldn't linger much more pleasurably on the palate than this accessible, adventurous, amusing and informative book by Bianca Bosker' - The Times Professional journalist and amateur drinker Bianca Bosker didn't know much about wine - until she discovered the world of elite sommeliers who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of flavour. Fascinated by their fervour and seemingly superhuman sensory powers, she set out to uncover what drove their obsession, and whether she, too, could become a 'cork dork.' With boundless curiosity, humour and a healthy dose of scepticism, Bosker takes the reader inside underground tasting groups, exclusive New York City restaurants, mass-market wine factories and even a neuroscientist's fMRI machine as she attempts to answer the most nagging question of all: what's the big deal about wine? Funny, counterintuitive and compulsively readable, Cork Dork does for drinking what Kitchen Confidential did for dining out, ensuring you'll never reach blindly for the second cheapest bottle on the menu again.

This is a short, entertaining and illuminating introduction to the history and culture of coffee, from the humble origins of the bean in northeast Africa over a millennium ago, to what it is today, a global phenomenon that is enjoyed around the world. It is the perfect gift for coffee lovers, including chapters on the rise of the coffeehouse, legal bans on coffee, Brazil's domination of the world coffee trade and the birth of the espresso.

Learning about wine can be a daunting task. With terms like assemblage, batonnage and cuvee; ullage, terroir and vielles vignes, it's not surprising that many people are put off and simply reach for the nearest bottle of red or white in the supermarket aisle. This is the perfect, concise guide for anyone who loves wine but wants to find out more. Arranged in an easy-to-use format in which different types of wine are shown schematically on a map like the London Underground, the reader can see at a glance the salient features of hundreds of different wines and how they relate to each other in terms of taste. A unique and original tool to navigate the complex world of wine, The Pocket Guide to Wine enables wine lovers to find out more about the wines they already like and to make informed choices as they explore further.

Make waves in your kitchen and create a feast fit for a mermaid Dive into this magical under-the-sea adventure and bring the mysterious mermaids to life in this shimmering cookbook filled with pearls and sparkles. Whether you want to build a Sandcastle Cake, bake Turtle Waffles, concoct Jam Clams or create a Sealicious Smoothie, The Mermaid Cookbook is packed with recipes perfect for parties and times when you want to mermaze your guests.

This book is universally known as the 'winemaker's bible'. Over three million beginners have been happily launched into the fascinating hobby of winemaking by successive editions of this practical guide. This completely updated ninth edition sets out in metric, imperial and American measures some 150 detailed recipes, all arranged in the months best suited for their making so that winemaking can be pursued all year round. Wines from fruit, flowers, vegetables, foliage and kits are all dealt with, and for the more advanced winemaker there are notes on making wines in bulk, showing wine and judging. First published in 1960, and with over three million copies sold since then, this book is an inspiration to all beginners in winemaking.

Drink deliciously and magickally with this exquisite compendium of potent mystical beverages, with witchy wisdom from author Shawn Engel and expertly crafted cocktails from mixologist Steven Nichols. For thousands of years, witches young and old have concocted mysterious potions to heal, to divine the future, to get in touch with the energies of the planet-and just to have fun. In this enchanting compendium of 40 drink recipes, mystical maven Shawn Engel shares her thoughts on what to imbibe for power, energy, and amusement. Written in tandem with the award-winning cocktail writer and developer Steven Nichols, this collection presents a broad range of drinks for every purpose. Whether it's a trio of beverages celebrating the energies of the maiden, mother, and crone (with notes of pomegranate, fig, and smoke respectively), or an eminently sippable mint-based money magick brew for prosperity, this book is a party with a purpose. Not only are these drinks fun and shareable, they also contain ingredients with ancient magickal significance. For example, the 'Keep it Hexy' is not only a delicious vodka-based cocktail perfect for kick-starting a memorable evening, it also contains black pepper to return a hex to sender, sage to cleanse an evil eye, and blackberries for protection. All recipes include energetic properties and plenty of information about magickal ingredients and why they've been used to address certain ills for millennia; some even come with invocations and rituals to amplify their power.

"Wine is, above all, about pleasure. Those who make it ponderous make it dull . . . If you keep an open mind and take each wine on its own terms, there is a world of magic to discover." So wrote the renowned wine expert Kermit Lynch in the introduction to Adventures on the Wine Route, his ultimate tour of France, especially its wine cellars. The "magic" of wine is Lynch's subject as he takes the reader on a singular journey through the Loire, Bordeaux, the Languedoc, Provence, northern and southern Rhone, and Burgundy. In Adventures on the Wine Route, the wine lover will find wisdom without a trace of pretension and hype. As Victor Hazan wrote, "In Kermit Lynch's small, true, delightful book there is more understanding about what wine really is than in everything else I have read." Praise for Lynch and for Adventures on the Wine Route has not ceased since the book's initial publication thirty years ago. In 2007, The New York Times called it "one of the finest American books on wine." And in June 2012, The Wall Street Journal proclaimed it "the best book on the wine business." Full of vivid portraits of French vintners, memorable evocations of the French countryside, and, of course, vibrant descriptions of French wines, this new edition of Adventures on the Wine Route updates a modern classic for our times.

Once upon a time in America there was a gentleman named Charles Christopher Mueller, who published, in 1934, seven little volumes titled Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars. He wasn't alone, his three compatriots--Al Hoppe, A V Guzman, and James Cunningham--compiled the recipes they shook and stirred at 30 bars around the US before Prohibition. They had met in 1906, at the height of the cocktail's Golden Age. In this compilation there is a recipe for a Cosmopolitan Daisy made with raspberry syrup and gin instead of cranberry juice and vodka There's only one problem in reading vintage cocktail books. Some of the ingredients are no longer available and need to be replaced with a focus on maintaining the original flavour profile as closely as can be practically managed. This can take years when you are working through 1,374 recipes: That is how many drinks this compilation contains. That is why award-winning London mixologist Myles Davies scoured through the contents and annotated everything including the spirits descriptions to give you, the reader, an opportunity to play with less pressure. So now it's time to stroll through pre-Prohibition American cocktails with the four gentlemen known as the American Traveling Mixologists and their British sidekick. Don't just stop at the Cosmopolitan Daisy. There are plenty of jewels in this treasure chest.

The worldwide bestseller - 1/4 million copies sold 'Written by a World Barista Champion and co-founder of the great Square Mile roasters in London, this had a lot to live up to and it certainly does. Highly recommended for anyone into their coffee and interested in finding out more about how it's grown, processed and roasted.' (Amazon customer) 'Whether you are an industry professional, a home enthusiast or anything in between, I truly believe this is a MUST read.' (Amazon customer) 'Informative, well-written and well presented. Coffee table and reference book - a winner' (Amazon customer) 'Very impressive. It's amazing how much territory is covered without overwhelming the reader. The abundant photos and images are absolutely coffee-table-worthy, but this book is so much more. I think it would be enjoyable for an obsessed coffee geek or someone who just enjoys their java.' (Amazon customer) For everyone who wants to understand more about coffee and its wonderful nuances and possibilities, this is the book to have. Coffee has never been better, or more interesting, than it is today. Coffee producers have access to more varieties and techniques than ever before and we, as consumers, can share in that expertise to make sure the coffee we drink is the best we can find. Where coffee comes from, how it was harvested, the roasting process and the water used to make the brew are just a few of the factors that influence the taste of what we drink. Champion barista and coffee expert James Hoffmann examines these key factors, looking at varieties of coffee, the influence of terroir, how it is harvested and processed, the roasting methods used, through to the way in which the beans are brewed. Country by country - from Bolivia to Zambia - he then identifies key characteristics and the methods that determine the quality of that country's output. Along the way we learn about everything from the development of the espresso machine, to why strength guides on supermarket coffee are really not good news. This is the first book to chart the coffee production of over 35 countries, encompassing knowledge never previously published outside the coffee industry.

A unique look at the meaning of the taste for wine in Britain, from the establishment of a Commonwealth in 1649 to the Commercial Treaty between Britain and France in 1860 - this book provides an extraordinary window into the politics and culture of England and Scotland just as they were becoming the powerful British state.