My book is about Britain and booze and the first chapter is largely about Sir Kenelm Digby and his roll in the invention of strong glass. It should be out early next year. No boats have been missed! Well argued and full of fascinating booze-related facts . . . it's an ambitious undertaking, but [Jeffreys] achieves it with a sharp eye and an understated humorous touch I rather liked. * Daily Mail * Casinos – Can give you loads of cash. But, if someone wins big (which can happen randomly), you could lose a lot of money as well. Well argued and full of fascinating booze-related facts . . . it's an ambitious undertaking, but [Jeffreys] achieves it with a sharp eye and an understated humorous touch I rather liked. Daily Mail

From renowned booze correspondent Henry Jeffreys comes this rich and full-bodied history of Britain and the Empire, told through the improbable but true stories of how the world's favourite alcoholic drinks came to be. Once you hit 100 notoriety, you can choose a made mobster to become an advisor. Advisors provide a loyalty bonus to your other units, making them extremely useful. You can only have one Advisor, so choose wisely! Underboss Swedes have schnapps and the Mongolians have fermented mare’s milk. The British, however, have a whole smorgasbord of drinks to compensate for the cold, Thanks for getting in touch. Henry is currently hard at work writing the first draft of the book. Once we receive this next year we'll get to work on editing, proof-reading, type-setting, designing the cover and producing the book. Please do look out for further updates of the book's progress. Of course, it didn’t happen. It was always very unlikely to. Most book don’t sell. I also think the timing was bad. When I first started working on Empire of Booze , narrative non-fiction was all the rage. You know the kind of thing, how one man’s quest for cheese conquered a kingdom and changed the world. By the time it came out, such books were dead. Furthemore a book celebrating British exceptionalism in 2016 seemed to really annoy some people. I can’t think why.I did this slightly odd interview with Bluffer's Guides. I couldn't think of proper answers to most of the questions so I just made something up.

Widow Burning, an account of the the Hindu custom. An uncommon original article from The Quarterly Review, 1851. The British are the most cosmopolitan people in all history. Forget the empire for a moment; that was just part of it. Aside from that, Britons travelled and traded in the world far more widely than they colonised it, unless you want to count travel and trade as forms of “imperialism”, which some do. They also emigrated, sometimes to their colonies, but more often not. This is why their presence and their legacy are still felt, even after all these years of shrinkage as a nation. In Empire of Booze Henry Jeffreys traces their contribution t o the alcoholic drinking habits of the world. His claim is that Britain, rather than, say, France or Germany, “the country with the greatest influence on wine and drink in general”. It’s a bold assertion, but after reading this book one can see what he means. New Hires —More notoriety means stronger (and more expensive) crew members will be available to recruit. New Roles —Certain notoriety thresholds mean you can promote members of your gang into roles like Underboss. Breezy read on the history of the British Empire as it interacted with and influenced the production and distribution of alcoholic drinks. Jeffreys' main point is that, though most spirits/wines are not produced in Britain, over the last centuries they have been produced mainly FOR the UK market, and thus English tastes have been hugely influential in determining what wine, whiskey, port, rum, champagne, gin, sherry, madeira, and beer taste and look like today.Britain, champagne would have been flat and sweet. Port? Well, the names on the bottles are a clue: Taylor’s, Churchill’s, Smith Woodhouse. We went on to I suppose I would have liked to read more about booze in America. This is often touched on, but we don't get an entire chapter on it like we do, for example, with Australia. On the other hand, perhaps Australia fits better into a single chapter while America would have required a second volume? No offense to the Aussies. There is plenty of booze history left out, even as it relates to the English empire, which is the focus of the book, but what is included is good. I’d love to say it was a bottle of Chateau Palmer 61 drunk with my grandfather but I didn’t have that sort of upbringing. My parents drank wine but I never particularly liked the sort of hard earthy wine my father bought. In retrospect it was probably quite good Bordeaux. I much preferred going to the pub and drinking beer with my father. If you are just starting to learn about wine you need two books: “ The Oxford Companion to Wine” (Jancis Robinson) and “ The World Atlas of Wine” (Jancis Robinson and Hugh Johnson). These two are so good and, between them, so comprehensive in their coverage of just exactly what is what that, unless you need to start pretending to be some sort of authority, they’ll do you forever. I’ve just received my latest energy bill and it appears that I’ve been living this last year in a draughty manor house rather than a three–bedroom ex-council flat. This winter, I’m going to have to choose between…