Festival BOOKS
A GENTEEL TIPPLE Sip your way through an alcoholic literary history
W hen Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary, in 1663, that two friends ‘did advise me to take some juniper water’, he was documenting the most zeitgeisty drink of the time. A century later, Hogarth’s Gin Lane engraving depicted the decay and devastation caused by excessive public consumption of the spirit. Gin slurs tipsily in and out of fashion and art across the ages, but though it hasn’t always been trendy, it has always had a tale to tell.
A Genteel Tipple Through Gin in Literature, hosted by Hendrick’s and moving from the Carnival of Knowledge at One Royal Circus to the Bon Vivant’s Companion this week, gathers together a library of gin references and gin-fuelled storytelling in literature, served alongside some cocktails specially designed to complement the readings. It’s a chance to take a botanically scented
trip through literary history, dropping in on Dickens and David Copperfield (with a taste of Mr Micawber’s reassuring hot spiced punch), F Scott Fitzgerald’s raucous parties at the home of Jay Gatsby, Dorothy Parker’s pithy cocktail-soaked poems and Ian Fleming, whose hero drinks maybe the most famous gin cocktail of all: the martini. The organisers at Hendrick’s are seemingly untroubled by the fact that James Bond himself specified a preference for Gordon’s in Casino Royale. Expect to be surprised by some of the more obscure literary allusions to mother’s ruin, and do a little ruining of your own (responsibly, of course) as you sip your juniper. Pepys would surely approve. (Charlotte Runcie)
Bon Vivant’s Companion, 225 6055, until 15 Aug, 7pm, £12 (drinks included).
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HITLIST THE BEST BOOKS, COMICS & EVENTS
✽ Tracey Thorn Thrills and spills in the music industry from the former Everything
but the Girl frontwoman who’ll be talking about her recent biography Bedsit Disco Queen: How I grew up and tried to be a pop star. Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 18 Aug, 8pm, £10 (£8).
✽ Michael Pedersen & Luke Wright
Literature goes live with these exciting young performance poets. Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 16 Aug, 8.30pm, £7 (£5).
✽ Out There at Jura Unbound LGBT writers present new stories to celebrate
the upcoming publication of new state-of-the- nation collection of queerness. Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 18 Aug, 9pm, free.
✽ Marina Warner Having previously considered the Virgin Mary, acclaimed
academic Warner dissects the myth and history of Joan of Arc. Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 20 Aug, 11am, £10 (£8).
✽ Fifty Shades of Feminism How far have women really come since the first
wave of feminism? Join the debate. Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 20 Aug, 3pm, £10 (£8).
✽ Melvin Burgess & Jeremy Dyson Horror with a decent dollop of quirk from
Junk author Burgess and The League of Gentlemen’s Dyson. Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 17 Aug, 8.30pm, £10 (£8).
15–26 Aug 2013 THE LIST FESTIVAL 31