Wine
A Wee Drop of Water
The liquid lunches of Dr Johnson’s circle
Heavenly Drunkenness
Erasmus saw drunkenness as divine ecstasy
Locke Wears Another Hat
The taciturn John Locke’s unexpected love of Château Haut-Brion
Platonic Plonk
Plato attempted to divorce wine-drinking and pleasure and to conscript wine to “worthy” purposes. Thank goodness no one listened to him
Boswell’s Life of Dissipation
Boswell fastidiously kept records of his drinking, and they reveal him to be an imbiber for all ages
Venus In Vinis
For Ovid, business and occupation are the enemies of Cupid, but wine “prepares the heart for love”
Big Ben’s Bacchanals
Twenty-stone Ben Jonson was a big man with a big appetite for drink; drink that transformed both his life and work
Stewed Lamb
The great man of letters Charles Lamb was naturally shy — wine allowed him to shine on conversation. Sometimes, though, he would overindulge
Poe’s False Friend
Edgar Allen Poe may have drunk himself to death but his tastes reveal a staggering ignorance about alcohol
Waugh’s Saving Grace
Revisiting Brideshead, we see that wine ministers to the sense of being as do few other things
Why Remoaners should back Boris
“Boris, ironically, now offers Remoaners the best chance of a soft Brexit, or at least a sensible one. And to those who want a second referendum—’the people’s vote’—there may even be a chance of that too.”
On the road
“In the summer of 1980, in the grip of some Kerouac-ish fantasy, I opted to hitch-hike from Laredo to New York”
Discovering the Great War of China
A third of a million Chinese labourers helped the Allies defeat the Kaiser, but their huge unsung contribution ended in betrayal