Advertisement
Become a member of the Big Issue community
JOIN
Books

Top 5 books about cocktails and spirits, chosen by Camper English

The cocktail writer and blogger Camper English selects five books all about booze, ingredients and the joys of mixology

Cocktails on a bar

Image: MS Meeuwesen on Unsplash

Author and blogger Camper English chooses the best books about cocktails, spirits and mixology.

1. The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails by David Wondrich and Noah Rothbaum 

Start on any page of this new, definitive encyclopedia of cocktail history and let it take you on a journey from entry to entry. It’s a boozy Wikipedia you can hold in your hands.

2. The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World’s Great Drinks by Amy Stewart

The ground-to-glass view of spirits and cocktails from one of America’s great nature writers; a most magical drink book rooted in the earth. 

3. Liquid Intelligence: The Art and Science of the Perfect Cocktail by Dave Arnold 

Advertisement
Advertisement

The hows and whys of advanced cocktail techniques from centrifuge cocktail clarification to nitro-muddling; ideal for the advanced home or professional mixologist who wants to bring some razzle-dazzle to their daiquiris. 

The Perfect Tonic by Camper English
The Perfect Tonic by Camper English is out now (William Collins, £16.99)

4. Proof: The Science of Booze by Adam Rogers

A nerdy, narrative investigation into fermentation, distillation, and how humans experience the flavour and impact of alcohol, from a Wired writer and editor.   

5. Fizz: How Soda Shook Up the World by Tristan Donovan

The history of carbonation and fizzy sodas and their use in and as medicine is every bit as fascinating as that of the liquor it is often mixed with. In Fizz, Donovan takes us from the era of supposedly healthy Schweppes soda water to the saccharin cancer scares and Coca-Cola of today. 

You can buy The Perfect Tonic from The Big Issue shop on Bookshop.org, which helps to support The Big Issue and independent bookshops.

This article is taken from The Big Issue magazine. If you cannot reach your local vendor, you can still click HERE to subscribe to The Big Issue today or give a gift subscription to a friend or family member.You can also purchase one-off issues from The Big Issue Shop or The Big Issue app, available now from the App Store or Google Play.

Advertisement

Become a Big Issue member

3.8 million people in the UK live in extreme poverty. Turn your anger into action - become a Big Issue member and give us the power to take poverty to zero.

Recommended for you

View all
Author Matt Haig: 'I was a teenage shoplifter. In my foolish brain I was a kind of Robin Hood'
Matt Haig
Letter To My Younger Self

Author Matt Haig: 'I was a teenage shoplifter. In my foolish brain I was a kind of Robin Hood'

Top 5 books about friendship, chosen by author Marianne Cronin
Books

Top 5 books about friendship, chosen by author Marianne Cronin

How Dante's grudges, gossip and pettiness still inspire hundreds of years on
Dante
Books

How Dante's grudges, gossip and pettiness still inspire hundreds of years on

Drifting across Europe in pursuit of my lost, wild twin
Books

Drifting across Europe in pursuit of my lost, wild twin

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know