Description
A rollicking illustrated history of alcohol and its literary imbibers, from Jane Austen's beer brewing to James Joyce's passion for Guinness to E.B. White's cure for writers' block--a dry martini--by celebrated illustrator Greg Clarke and award-winning editor/art director Monte Beauchamp.
"The tools that I need for my trade are simply pen, paper, food, tobacco, and a little whiskey."
--William Faulkner
"I keep a dictionary, a Bible, a deck of cards and a bottle of sherry in the room."
--Maya Angelou
"A writer who drinks carefully is probably a better writer."
--Stephen King
Throughout history, there has been no greater catalyst for creativity among writers, so they claim, than a good, stiff drink. In this graphic volume, the authors take us on an unforgettable literary bar crawl, packed with historical factoids, anecdotes, booze trivia, and fascinating detours into the lives of our favorite writers, along with literary-themed cocktail recipes such as Ernest Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon and Philip Larkin's Gin and Tonic set to verse.
For the literary-minded drinker, whether wine, gin, vodka, beer, whiskey, or tequila is your elixir of choice, A Sidecar Named Desire will whet your appetite. Bottoms up!
About the Author
Born and raised in Limerick City, Irish author Greg Clarke attended St. Munchin's College and the Limerick Institute of Technology. After working in the property industry for seven years, Greg and his father Ger, who had recently retired from Dell Computers, partnered to create the Santa Experience live event where families can travel through several themed rooms with Elf actors guiding them as they visit the elves' post office, stable, and sleigh station before arriving at Santa's house. Coming up with scripts, rooms, props required a lot of creativity and imagination. Now in its 11th year, the Santa Experience is in six cities in Ireland. The development of the Santa Experience inspired the book, while the COVID-19 lockdown was the impetus to start writing. Greg began a steep five-month learning curve from writing the book to getting it to print. "Seeing my mind's eye come to life in such glorious illustrations is magical," said Greg. Greg lives in Limerick with his wife Melanie, a native of Michigan, USA, and their daughter Leila. Greg and Melanie met one night in Barcelona, lost each other for a few months, found each other, dated across continents, broke up, got back together and got hitched not once, but twice!
Monte Beauchamp is an award winning art director and graphic designer, and founder of the graphics-illustration-comics anthologies BLAB! and BLAB WORLD. He has served as a juror for American Illustration, The Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, and Lürzer's Archive magazine. In 2012 he was awarded The Society of Illustrators prestigious Richard Gangel Art Director Award for outstanding contributions in promoting and advancing the art of illustration.