WHISKY HISTORY
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This month sees the release of an updated edition of The Founder’s Tale by Pip Hills, which prompted Gavin D Smith to take a look through his library of other influential and enduring whisky books
I remember buying my first whisky book. It was Professor RJS McDowall’s The Whiskies of Scotland, published in 1967 and purchased in Dunkeld, Perthshire during the summer of 1979.
This was soon followed by John Wilson’s Scotland’s Malt Whiskies, and Scotland’s Distilleries – A Visitor’s Guide, both so badly ‘bound’ that I was soon left with a pair of virtually loose-leaf volumes.
Nonetheless, this trio of titles informed my early adventures into the world of whisky at a time when few, if any, other whisky books were readily available.
Looking at the ever-increasing plethora of whisky-related titles now on the market, it is difficult to appreciate how few such books there were until relatively recent years.
One obvious classic, from a century previously, is Alfred Barnard’s The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom, but Barnard’s tome was never intended for public consumption, it was always a ‘trade’ title.
The first books about whisky aimed at the public did not appear until the 1930s, when two volumes, each written by a committed Scottish nationalist and each highly individual and polemical, hit the shelves.
Neil M Gunn’s Whisky and Scotland (1935) featured in February’s issue of Unfiltered, while Whisky, by Gunn’s fellow author and publisher Aeneas MacDonald, had preceded that title by five years.
Dave Broom has described Whisky as ‘the finest whisky book ever’, while Charlie MacLean wrote that ‘If I could take only one whisky book to a desert island, it would be Aeneas MacDonald’s Whisky.’
Aeneas MacDonald was a pseudonym adopted by Leith-born George Malcolm Thomson, and the author saw the perceived decline of interest in Scotland’s national drink as symbolic of the state of Scotland as a whole during that inter-war period.
Thomson was undoubtedly a whisky purist, setting pot still single malt on a pedestal, while the product of the column still was largely to be despised. The book is bold, opinionated and beautifully written.
Undoubtedly one of the most colourful characters ever to have written a book about whisky was Sir Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart, who as well as being a journalist and author was a British diplomat and secret agent. His extraordinary life is, in itself, worthy of exploration.
PICTURED: from top, Neil Gunn and Alfred Barnard, with the cover of Gunn’s Whisky and Scotland
His 1951 volume Scotch – The Whisky of Scotland in Fact and Story is notable for a fine chapter devoted to the Speyside distillery of Balmenach, whose single malt is notably elusive today. The distillery had been established by Lockhart’s great-grandfather, James Macgregor, and the young Lockhart spent many childhood holidays there.
1969 saw the appearance of a highly influential whisky title, namely Scotch Whisky: Its Past and Present, written by academic, commentator and author David Daiches. Like many of his predecessors in the genre of whisky literature, Daiches was very much a single malt man, and he credits Neil Gunn’s 1935 volume as encouraging his interest in the subject.
Daiches wrote that: “The effect of the book was not immediate, but slowly it made its way into the consciousness of a number of Scots drinkers and slowly the revival of the malt as the true Scotch whisky got under way.”
Following the public success of Scotch, Daiches penned Let’s Collect Scotch Whisky (1981) and A Wee Dram: Drinking Scenes from Scottish Literature (1990), and was an enthusiastic and highly knowledgeable early member of the Society’s Tasting Panel.
Another writer with a trio of whisky titles to his name is Ross Wilson, author of Scotch Made Easy (1959), the extremely informative Scotch: The Formative Years {1970), and Scotch – Its History and Romance (1973).
All of which brings us to the Society’s founder Pip Hills, who prior to writing his highly entertaining The Founder’s Tale: A Good Idea and a Glass of Malt (2019), had already made his mark among whisky writers by editing and authoring three distinctive titles.
Scots on Scotch (1991) is an absorbing and occasionally provocative anthology of fine writing about whisky, notable for its contributions by David Daiches, Hamish Henderson and Derek Cooper, with poetry by Norman MacCaig and Liz Lochhead. The volume is notable for a comparatively early foray into the topic of ‘Women and Whisky’ courtesy of a chapter by journalist Ruth Wishart.
Appreciating Whisky followed in 2000, the publishers describing it as “the definitive guide for the aspiring whisky buff,” writing that the title “offers the reader detailed, structured tuition on how to develop his or her palate for whisky…
“Using specific popular whiskies which readers are encouraged to have to hand as they work through the book, they are taught how to recognise what it is they are tasting and smelling, and how to describe this in the language of the experts. Armed with this knowledge, readers will ultimately be able to develop their own informed impressions of the whisky they drink…”
Pip’s next venture into authorship came five years later with The Scotch Whisky Directory, offering “a simple but original way of presenting and evaluating the flavour of a whisky by means of a simple graphic and star-rating system.
“He applies this to all of the more important Scotch whisky brands – blends and grain whiskies as well as malts – showing what flavours are to be found in each. The judgements regarding the flavours have been made by four of the Scotch whisky industry’s leading experts, whom Hills has recruited specially for the purpose. The result is a directory from which the consumer can get accessible, reliable and objective information about how whiskies taste.”
For anyone wishing to explore whisky literature via the far from complete list of titles noted above, the good news is that with few exceptions, used copies of most are available for relatively modest prices.
But do keep enough money back to buy a collaborative volume by Charlie MacLean and Gavin D Smith, due out next year. I’m told it’s going to be excellent.