The Longest Crawl Author:Ian Marchant According to G. K. Chesteron, the act of getting to and from a pub is central to an understanding of the British life and landscape. With around 60,000 to choose from, he may have had a point. So, bon viveur, pub singer, and writer Ian Marchant sets off with photographer Perry Venus on a grueling month-long British pub crawl, to go to and from a... more » lot of pubs in order to test Chesterton's hypothesis.
Ian and Perry started off at the Turk's Head on the Isles of Scilly, the most southwesterly pub in Britain, and by way of Plymouth, Glastonbury, Winchester, Kensal Green, wild Wales, Walsall, Burton, Skegness, Lancaster, Gretna Green, Glasgow, Jura and duff Gardens, ended in the most northeasterly place one can go for a drink, the Baa Bar at RAF Saxa Void on Unst in the Shetlands, where they breached national security.
The two friends meander along the roads of Britain, meeting up for a drink with low comedians, award-winning poets, chavs, hedonists, Europe's foremost pub philosopher and Ian's Uncle Tony. Along the way they unearth the origins of gin-and-tonic, find out how pork scratchings are made, learn how to distill moonshine and reveal how Pub Quiz is the new freemasonry.
This is a uniquely British book, revealing something of the nature of Britain and how its history, culture and lives are deeply intertwined with the joys and demons of drink.« less