The Original Bestselling Guide to Over 5000 of Britain's Finest Pubs (Good Guides S.) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0091867924 ISBN 13: 9780091867928

Publisher: Ebury Press, 1999

Synopsis

This county-by-county guide contains information on over 5000 of the best pubs in England, Wales, Scotland, and the Channel Islands. Principal entries include detailed descriptions of the pubs, all of which have been inspected and assessed for food, drink, atmosphere, prices, and opening hours.

About this title

Review

The 17th edition of the always excellent Good Pub Guide assesses upwards of 5,000 pubs in its ("fully inspected") main entries, with short listings for hundreds more in the Lucky Dip sections at the end of each county's chapter. To have qualified for a full entry, the pub in question will have survived the "acid test" of an "inspection" by the Editor or Deputy Editor, or both--what exhausting lives the pair of them must lead--and demonstrated some special quality that is likely to make strangers enjoy visiting it. Pubs receiving the accolade range from what are to all intents and purposes fairly smart restaurants that have grown out of pubs, such as the much-praised Angel at Hetton in Yorkshire (though strict criteria regarding residual pubbiness are applied), to fascinatingly rudimentary survivals like the Monkey House at Defford in Hereford & Worcester, which is "one of the last absolutely traditional cider houses", serving jugs of cider from a hatch by the front door. Beer (or equivalent), of course, is central to the assessment, though as pub clients become increasingly sophisticated eaters-out, food now occupies an important place. Essentially, the Guide is a triumph of participatory democracy, relying as it does on the tireless efforts of thousands of volunteers, who continually monitor and report on the state of the British boozer. The consensus this year is that it is pretty healthy, with even some of the big breweries recognising that at least the appearance of individuality is sometimes better than that of the conveyer-belt theme pub. (Incidentally, the Good Pub Guide is now available on the Internet at www.goodguides.com, handy I suppose if you work up a thirst web-surfing.) -- Robin Davidson

From the Publisher

Recent reviews for the bestselling Good Pub Guide:
'The Good Pub Guide lives in my glove compartment' Rob Ryan, Sunday Times

'Easily the best national pub guide of the several in the bookshops' Time Out

Edition details

• Publisher: Ebury Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0091867924
• ISBN 13: 9780091867928
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 1024
• Editor: Aird Alisdair