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Review
Paul Moody and Robin Turner seem to have found the ideal literary assignment, travelling round Britain in pursuit of the ideal watering place. But they also have a serious purpose as they investigate the decline of pub culture. (Conde Nast Traveller Giles Foden )
Part road trip, part pub guide and part lament, Paul Moody and Robin Turner's book takes its lead from George Orwell's fantasy pub...the enthusiasm for fine beers and charming independent pubs makes reading it very thirsty work. (Nathan Brooker FINANCIAL TIMES )
A rattling good yarn. It is the fruit of a three-year journey measuring - surprisingly favourably - today's pubs with with a template set 65 years ago by George Orwell. (Brian Elliott Scotland on Sunday )
Taking chapters in turn, the pair travel far and wide, stopping off at some idiosyncratic and idyllic bars while delivering wholehearted celebration of the old-fashioned pub and all it represents (Euan Ferguson TIME OUT )
Entertaining and illuminating (Shortlist )
A pub crawl meets liquid social history...this book can only help. (Reuters )
A very entertaining journey with plenty of input from the kinds of characters I'd love to spend a pint or three with. And I highly recommend you buy a copy. It's the ideal book to make you think as you drink in that pub that you love on a wet afternoon in winter. (Reluctant Scooper )
Written with a personality and intelligence that gives the book the feel of an informed, passionate chat down the pub. (The Quietus )
Part elegy, part report on the state of the nation's libation. They are admirably even-handed, meeting both evil pubco mouthpieces and nice "micropub" hosts, and makes an excellent case for using and encouraging our pubs. (Steve Jelbert THE INDEPENDENTS ON SUNDAY )
As the book so persuasively argues, well-run locals are the refuge of the democratic patriot and a force for social cohesion. You'll resolve to visit at least one pub every day for the rest of your life. (Paul Du Noyer WORD MAGAZINE )
Part road trip, part pub guide and part lament, Paul Moody and Robin Turner's book takes its lead from George Orwell's fantasy pub...the enthusiasm for fine beers and charming independent pubs makes reading it very thirsty work. (Nathan Brooker FINANCIAL TIMES )
A rattling good yarn. It is the fruit of a three-year journey measuring - surprisingly favourably - today's pubs with with a template set 65 years ago by George Orwell. (Brian Elliott Scotland on Sunday )
Taking chapters in turn, the pair travel far and wide, stopping off at some idiosyncratic and idyllic bars while delivering wholehearted celebration of the old-fashioned pub and all it represents (Euan Ferguson TIME OUT )
Entertaining and illuminating (Shortlist )
A pub crawl meets liquid social history...this book can only help. (Reuters )
A very entertaining journey with plenty of input from the kinds of characters I'd love to spend a pint or three with. And I highly recommend you buy a copy. It's the ideal book to make you think as you drink in that pub that you love on a wet afternoon in winter. (Reluctant Scooper )
Written with a personality and intelligence that gives the book the feel of an informed, passionate chat down the pub. (The Quietus )
Part elegy, part report on the state of the nation's libation. They are admirably even-handed, meeting both evil pubco mouthpieces and nice "micropub" hosts, and makes an excellent case for using and encouraging our pubs. (Steve Jelbert THE INDEPENDENTS ON SUNDAY )
As the book so persuasively argues, well-run locals are the refuge of the democratic patriot and a force for social cohesion. You'll resolve to visit at least one pub every day for the rest of your life. (Paul Du Noyer WORD MAGAZINE )
Book Description
Around Britain, clocking up hundreds of beer miles in search of the perfect pub. A passionate defence of English drinking culture; an elegy for the local on your street corner.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I bought this book after reading a piece in the Guardian documenting five celebrities favourite watering holes, not realising that the authors had also penned one of my most thumbed guide books of the last few years - the Rough Pub Guide. Although not without humour, The Search For The Perfect Pub is far less knockabout than it's predecessor. Using George Orwell's 1946 piece the Moon Under Water (published as a preface) as guidance, Moody and Turner set off on an attempt to work out what was previously one of our greatest institutions actually means to the Britain of the 21st century. As a perfect storm (the smoking ban, heavy taxation, recession, insane supermarket prices) whips through pub world, the writers journey from their local to Parliament via island outposts and inner city institutions. Along the way they talk to everyone from Wetherspoon's boss Tim Martin, beer writer supreme Pete Brown, Manic Street Preacher's James Dean Bradfield and London archivist Iain Sinclair. It's a throughly intoxicating trip that eventually leads them to the pubs that Orwell used as liquid inspiration for the original piece. The only criticism is the lack of a printed route map to help start the reader on their own quest to find pub perfection.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Knowing my penchant for the dying breed that is the 'proper' British pub and how much I'd enjoyed the authors previous 'Rough Pub Guide', I received this as a Christmas gift and originally thought it would be a similar 'dip in and out' reference book - but no -this is far more! It's at times hilarious and at times a lament on pub culture and either way, a brilliant read. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED *****
Format:Hardcover
I thought that was a pretty well-written, even-handed, wide-ranging and informative consideration of the issues affecting (and afflicting) the great British pub today. It didn't seem to be much of a search as such, more a series of more or less related discussions about the isssues with some impressive interviews and some thoughtful writing.
The only thing I didn't quite enjoy was that, as is often the case, the authors are journalists (in this case music journalists as far as I can see) who can't resist filling space with their own anecdotes and music stories which are of very little interest or relevance.
And they never really seem to come to any conclusion as to what the perfect pub is although maybe that is because there can be no such thing. Anyway, if there was, you wouldn't tell everyone would you?
The only thing I didn't quite enjoy was that, as is often the case, the authors are journalists (in this case music journalists as far as I can see) who can't resist filling space with their own anecdotes and music stories which are of very little interest or relevance.
And they never really seem to come to any conclusion as to what the perfect pub is although maybe that is because there can be no such thing. Anyway, if there was, you wouldn't tell everyone would you?
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The search for the perfect pub.looking for the moon under water
I read this book in a couple of days,meaning that I thoroughly enjoyed it.It was written by two people who really care about the institution which is the British pub. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Roger William Greaves
Good, but also a little dissapointing.
Firstly, I must say that this is a very well written book and there are some interesting interviews/chats with some of the leading lights of the pub world (Pete Brown, Tim Martin... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Simon Wallis
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