The Book of Gin

“If you love a classic gin martini pour yourself one and tuck into this fasci­nating story … Oh, and make sure the gin bottle is full.” —Dale Degroff

Gin has been a drink of kings, infused with crushed pearls and rose pet­als, and a drink of the poor, flavored with turpentine and sulfuric acid. Born in alchemists’ stills and monastery kitchens, its earliest incarnations were juniper-flavored medicines used to prevent plague, ease the pains of childbirth, and even to treat a lack of courage.

In this sweeping history, Richard Barnett traces the life of this beguiling spirit, once believed to cause a “new kind of drunkenness.” In the eighteenth century, gin-crazed debauchery (and class conflict) inspired Hogarth’s satirical masterpieces Gin Lane and Beer Street. In the nineteenth century, gin was drunk by Napoleonic War naval heroes, at lavish gin palaces, and by homesick colonials who mixed it with their bitter antimalarial tonics. In the early-twen­tieth century, the illicit cocktail culture of prohibition made gin—the often dangerous bathtub gin—fashionable again. And today, with the growth of small-batch distilling, gin has once again made a comeback.

Wide-ranging, impeccably researched, and packed with illuminating stories, The Book of Gin is lively and fascinating, an indispensible history of a complex and notorious drink.

"Well-balanced and bracingly smooth, Richard Barnett's The Book of Gin is equal parts rich and intoxicating narrative mixed with an entertaining and wholly accessible era-spanning history of one of the world's most storied spirits." —Brad Thomas Parsons, author ofBitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All

“How can you not want to indulge in gin–both the drink and this book–for as author Richard Barnett points out, gin is ‘a seemingly inexhaustible vehicle for myth-making and story-telling.’ From medieval alchemy to London’s notorious Gin Lane to glamorous Hollywood cocktail parties, our most able raconteur Barnett provides insight into how gin became an unabashed icon and serves as a metaphor for Western culture." —Peter Krass, author of Blood & Whiskey: The Life and Times of Jack Daniel’s

“Few drinks have haunted society as starkly as gin … In The Book of Gin, Richard Barnett artfully charts the aromatic distillate’s unlikely path from medicine to public menace, blending references as varied as the Archidoxa of Paracelsus and … Mad Men to create a nuanced portrait of the drink and its impact on humanity. … The titular subject of Barnett’s book may be a distillate, but gin owes its life to the men and women who produced, promoted, consumed and condemned it, from William III to James Bond. The most lyrical of their names and stories … pepper Barnett’s story like bursts of poetry.” —Evan Rail,The Times Literary Supplement

“Mr. Barnett takes the reader on a historic journey from the City States of Italy at the end of the Dark Ages to the gin fueled dance floors of the Stork Club and El Morocco in New York City. We get a peek into the gin revival among growing artisan distillers movement in the new millennium. If you love a classic gin martini pour yourself one and tuck into this fascinating story … Oh, and make sure the gin bottle is full.” —Dale Degroff

“From the very beginnings of genever production, Barnett takes us on a colourful journey through gin's history and its intersection with culture: from the contention in 1310 that spirits might contain the essence of sunshine; distilled by vines into their fruits, through wars, world exploration, and global trade, to the Dutch Golden Age and the Roaring Twenties, to its current renaissance in the cocktail world. … The urban, gritty tales are as entertaining as they are informative, involving intriguing characters and delving into the works of Daniel Defoe, William Hogarth, Charles Dickens and—of course—Ian Fleming's James Bond. … It's rare that a book so catches our attention atClass, but this is a must-read for those who loves gin: it's not just a geeky companion for nerds, but a truly enjoyable history for anyone who likes to end the working day with a G&T.” —Jonathan Cowley,Class Magazine