To those of you who have noticed that nothing has been happening here for almost six months, apologies for my absence – this has been caused mostly by the need to try to earn a living, which rather came before beer blogging, and which has taken me a long way away from home (and sources of varied good beer).
However I’m delighted to say that I’ve found a “printed copy” publisher for Amber Gold and Black, my book on the history of British beer styles, which appeared as an e-book last year and which is due to appear as a “proper” book in the UK in April next year – it’s already on Amazon UK, why not pre-order it now and help the cash flow at The History Press, my publisher?
The imminent arrival of a printed copy, incidentally, does mean that the e-book has now been pulled – many thanks to all those who bought it, who included some very famous names in the brewing industry on both sides of the Atlantic, many thanks to Fuller Smith and Turner, who sponsored the website for the e-book, and many thanks to Miles Jenner and Harvey’s of Lewes, whose generous loan funded the preparation and updating of the manuscript for the printed version. I did say that anyone who bought the e-book would get money off any printed version, and I intend to keep that promise – more about that next year, when the printed version comes out.
In addition to updating Amber Gold and Black, what little beer blogging I’ve been doing has been for a new American operation, Beer Connoisseur, which asked me to be its resident blogger on beery history – you can sign up for it here should you be so minded, it’s as good a take on the varied and fascinating American brewing scene as any I know (self-interest alert: a very tiny amount of money comes my way if you sign up via my blog on Beer Connoisseur and use the code that you will find there …)
However, I hope to be able to start putting up some entries here again: there are several topics I want to air that don’t fit into my brief for Beer Connoisseur, and I promise it won’t be another six months before I blog again here.
Meanwhile, I’m surprised to say that my writing appears on YouTube, to the bemusement of both me and my 10-year-old daughter, who cannot understand why her very uncool dad even knows about YouTube, let alone has a snatch of video on it devoted to a book he wrote 10 years ago. However, someone calling themselves kehdi22 has put up one minute 10 seconds of someone turning over the pages of the American edition of Beer Memorabilia, which I wrote in 1999 – no commentary, no sound, except for the rustle of the pages being turned. Why? Dunno. Have a look for yourself …
Don’t apologize. Just don’t do it again.
Good to see you back.
Good to have you back indeed, and great news regarding the book. Looking forward to having something less cumbersome than that dog-eared A4 printout !
I am also delighted to see you back blogging.
Welcome back.
Great news about the book. Any chance of a proper index and, please(!), references?
Index yes, references … the trouble with footnotes is, they put off more punters than they attract, the idea is not to actually look too scholarly, and you sell more books that way. I always try to mention my sources in the actual text, and there’ll be a bibliography …
Make the footnotes available online?
We were worried sick. Why didn’t you call?
Glad you are back and look forward to more interesting articles. And congrats on the hard copy of your book, it is an excellent read.
Welcome back, and congrats on the book. I’ve found it a very interesting read.
fantastic I was just considering printing the copy you gave me out but now I will wait for a proper hard copy.
Great news about the book, I look forward to the printed copy, I regularly consult amber gold and black!
Glad to see you back, but I wish I’d realised earlier – now I’ve got an eight-month backlog to catch up with. Curses!