Category: author
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Burns Night 2025
The birthday of Robert Burns on 25 January is an opportunity to celebrate Scotland’s southern-most whisky distillery. We probably all associate Robert Burns with his love of whisky, but we sometimes forget that he was also an excise officer – fighting the smugglers and illicit stills. Poetry wasn’t big business in those days and when…
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St Andrew’s Day 2024
St Andrew’s Day and time to celebrate a Scottish gin. I was in Galloway last week and took the opportunity to seek out the Dark Arts distillery in Kirkcudbright. It’s a wee gem. It’s part of the Johnston – a former primary school – which also houses the Dark Space planetarium. You can’t miss the…
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Lancashire Day 2024
Dare we say it but it’s Lancashire Day on 27 November Celebrate everything that’s great about Lancashire with one of its gins. My book GINS of the NORTH WEST tells the stories of Lancashire’s gins and their makers … so you can pick the gin which suits your toast to Lancashire! To name a few: Batch,…
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French spirit
Amazing what gin you come across on a short break in France. Pays basques is home to several … and people were proud to show them off. Charente (home of Cognac) also gets in on the act. First up is Brana and in particular it’s espelette flavoured gin. You can’t visit Biarritz or St Jean…
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Yorkshire Day 2024
Celebrate all the good things in God’s Own Country on Yorkshire Day on 1 August. What better way to toast them with a Gin made in Yorkshire? Pick one with the help of YORKSHIRE’S GINS – the definitive guide to the county’s gins and their distilleries and makers. Available at independent bookshops and stores or…
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Cheshire Day 2024
Cheshire might be famous for its cheese, a grinning cat and being one of the cradles of the industrial revolution … but more importantly it is home to a lot of gin. As I wrote in my book GINS of the NORTH WEST, a Cheshire market town is home to the oldest gin in the…
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Gin stories
About the author I’m the author of three gin books – GINS of the NORTH WEST, YORKSHIRE’S GINS + The GIN CLAN. The GINS of the NORTH WEST features the gins and their makers and distilleries in Lancashire, Cheshire, Cumbria, Manchester, Liverpool. I’m also a journalist writing about a wide variety of things from tech,…
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Wild feast
Foraging in Scotland – Seeking a taste of East Lothian. Blackberrying marked the end of the summer holidays when I was little. The plump dark berries squishing in the bag as we walked along before they appeared in my mother’s bramble and apple pie. That was the sum total of our wild food harvest in…
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Dilemma sorted
Valentine’s Day Gifts Make it a Valentine’s Day to savour. Choose a book for the gin lover in your life. YORKSHIRE’S GINS will guide you through the gins of God’s Own County.The GIN CLAN will introduce you to the gins of Scotland.GINS of the NORTH WEST will guide you through the gins of Cumbria, Lancashire,…
The GIN CLAN 