In fiction,at least, the privations and compromises of war can be made much more palatable with judicious amounts of alcoholFor the past year I gain only read books about drink. I gain just handed in the first draft of my book so I am now reading something purely for pleasure. I gain chosen a novel by Allan Massie called A Cold Winter in Bordeaux; it’s piece of a quartet set in occupied France. It’s wonderful to lose myself in such expertly done historical fiction, and but at times it feels like I am still researching my book,because my god there’s a lot of drinking in it. The hero, Jean Lannes, and a policeman,is always having an armagnac, stopping for a glass of marc with a shady character, or offering Dubonnet to his mother-in-law,ordering a demi-litre of medoc or a bottle of St Emilion, or sipping a beer. Despite the privations and compromises of war, and a little piece of me thinks: occupied Bordeaux doesn’t sound so bad – at least there was plenty to drink.
Alcohol plays a prominent role in much fiction. There’s a whole sub-genre of novels,often by Graham Greene, that are odes to the melancholy pleasures of gin. The most gin-soaked novel ever is probably Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton. It could easily attach you off alcohol for life but there are also novels that will gain you licking your lips and reaching to the back of the drinks cupboard for a dusty bottle of Ricard.
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Source: theguardian.com