Iain Banks

A tour of Scottish distilleries explores the history, personality and mystery of the water of life. As a native of Scotland, bestselling author Ian Banks has decided to undertake a tour of the distilleries of his homeland in a bid to uncover the unique spirit of the single malt. Visiting world-famous distilleries and also the small and obscure ones, Iain Banks embarks on a journey of discovery which educates him about the places, people and products surrounding the centuries-old tradition of whisky production. Using various modes of transport -- island ferries, cars across the highlands and even bicycles -- Banks' tour of Scotland combines history, literature and landscape in an entertaining and informative account of an exploration in which the arrival is by no means the most important part of the journey.

In Search of the Perfect Dram

Raw Spirit

Cams Campbell

I used to enjoy whisky. I also enjoy Iain Banks's novels. So it made sense to read a book about whisky by Iain Banks. Ironically, I picked this book up from the boxes of books stored in the church hall where we have our Wednesday AA meetings. I put 50p in the honesty box.

The book is very readable. Iain travels around Scotland visiting distilleries and buying up hunners of bottles. One might say that it's a self-indulgent book by a writer with too much money and who likes nothing more than to talk about his cars and motorcycles and throws money away on expensive wine and restaurants. And that isn't entirely wrong either, but for all that it is still strangely compelling and enjoyable. He shares a lot of anecdotes about his life, many of which are rather amusing, such as his enjoyment of urban climbing. And although he talks a lot about his expensive cars, it's clearly more than just self-indulgent prattle; this is a man who knows and loves the automobile and his enthusiasm is infectious. He also knows Scotland very well and it's fun to read his descriptions of the various roads across the country.

Overall this is a great book. I enjoyed it a lot more than i thought I would. I'd give it a four.

Halsted Mencotti Bernard

my favorite contemporary author reviews my favorite beverage. what could be better?

Les Reynolds

It rambles on a lot, but offered some neat anecdotes about different whisky, and insights into traveling through Scotland.

Raw Spirit In Search of the Perfect Dram

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