A Dark History of Gin written by Mike Rendell and published by Pen &
Sword Books - £20 - Hardback - Pages 208
A Dark History of Gin looks at the origins and development of a drink which seems
From the tragic era of the gin craze in eighteenth-century London, through to the emergence of ‘the cocktail’, the book follows the story of gin across the Atlantic to America and the emergence of the mixologist. It also follows the growth of the Temperance Movement and the origins of the Prohibition, before looking at the period between the First and Second World Wars – the cocktail age. From there the book looks at the emergence in the twentieth century of craft gins across the globe, enabling the drink to enjoy a massive increase in popularity.
The book is intended as a light-hearted look-behind-the-scenes at how ‘Mother’s Ruin’ developed into rather more than just a plain old ’G & T’.
I must admit that I came to this book with some preconceived ideas of how the book would run, expecting mainly a book about slavery & crime. But I must admit that I was wrong. What we have a is really comprehensive read through a timeline, that mainly focuses on Britain, but it does have a bit of America and the Scandinavian countries thrown in for good measure. The book begins with the juniper berry and follows through to being a cocktail and more mainstream drink in the modern world. We go through prohibition in America, the influence of the Low Countries, and what I really enjoyed the effect on politics and regulation through a number of acts, and some of the riots and disruptions that occurred.
I also quite enjoyed the appendices at the back of the book which have a number of gin
recipes and also the slang involved in the gin world, these quite interesting. This was
an excellent book with a lot of research and entertaining writing from Mike Rendell.
I must say a big thumbs up for the good amount of cartoons and drawings throughout
the book, these were both amusing and entertaining. I would certainly recommend this
book to any fans of gin.