Apologies if these book reviews are boring you. My backlog of books is about as long as my backlog of whiskies and books make a better companion on a school night.

Peat Smoke & Spirit is written by Andrew Jefford in the early 2000’s. Jefford is described as leading Britain’s next generation of drink writers. Writing for newspapers, appearing on radio programmes and laterally consulting, tourism and royalties. As a sign of the industry, Jefford includes an income page on his website where since 2011 he has outlined his yearly earnings and their source. On a yearly income last year of £65k 80% of that was on non-journalist work. I guess even those with a portfolio of books and regular contributions to newspapers you either go cold or you branch out into other complementary areas.

Back to the book though and it is set partly as a chronicle of trips to the Island of Islay and partly as a historical non-fiction book of the viking history on the island. Both parts are intertwined in the book as we chart the open distilleries at the time of writing. In turn we stop past Ardbeg, Bowmore, Bruichladdich, Bunnahabhain, Caol Ila, Lagavulin and Laphroaig before a discussion on those distilleries long since lost.

Across 400 tightly typed pages there is a lot of detail and while ancient history has never lit up my world it is interesting to link back to a time when Islay was highly significant in both culture and politics. I must confess though that the last 25% or so of the book my interest did start to slid a little and the prose can be quite wordy.

At the very end of the book though there is a significant passage on both Kilchoman and Daftmill distilleries as a new breed of farm based whisky production sites. Jefford definitely signals that these kind of craft enterprises could have a profitable and exciting future here.

How right he was