Martyn Cornell – författare

In 1636 the poet and traveller John Taylor wrote, ‘Hertfordshire is a County that surpasseth all other Countries and Counties for making the best malt.’ Much of that malt went by cart or barge to London, but Hertfordshire also has a long tradition of brewing, as well as malting, and the county eventually developed several substantial breweries. These included Benskin’s of Watford, which at one point owned some 640 pubs from Brighton to Cambridge, and even supplied the House of Commons. Today Hertfordshire still has some twenty breweries, including one, McMullen’s of Hertford, which will soon celebrate its 200th anniversary.This carefully researched and well-illustrated book by one of Britain’s leading historians of the brewing industry looks at the long history of commercial brewing across Hertfordshire, and the often fascinating stories of the dozens of now undeservedly forgotten firms that once supplied the county’s pubs with their beer.

Come with us on a beer-fuelled journey crisscrossing the globe, taking in every continent and more than 40 different countries, as we discover the huge range of different brews available today around the world, explore their backstories, take a deep dive into the history of beer, going back 13,000 years to the dawn of civilisation, and come right up to the 21st century to discover beer styles invented only a few years ago.No matter if you are a beginner in beer, just starting to discover the amazing variety of beverages made from grain and yeast that can be found from pole to pole, or an experienced beer drinker who knows their porter from their pilsner and their bock from their bitter, there will be stories within these pages that will educate, amaze, amuse and inspire you. Around the World in 80 Beers travels from the pine forest of Finland to the jungles of Brazil, and the moors of Scotland to the rocky coasts of New Zealand. It covers all the great brewing cities of the world – Munich, Pilsen, London, Dublin, Milwaukee and so on – and also looks at beer brewing in places as diverse as Trappist monasteries in Belgium and villages in the hills of Myanmar in South East Asia.The range of different beers covered is astonishing: not just the well-known, such as IPA, pilsner, and Imperial stout, but the rare and little-heard-of, such as Norwegian kveik ale, or Jopejskie, the thick, black, amazingly strong beer recently revived in Poland. It uncovers some strange stories, such as the surprising popularity of milk stout among the urban working class in South Africa, and knocks some myths on the head, such as the allegedly ancient history of Irish Red Ale. In all, this is a trip like no other you have ever been on. Strap yourself in, and grab your glass.