From the heyday of Waugh and Wodehouse, the brandy habit has declined amongst the British

From the heyday of Waugh and Wodehouse, the brandy habit has declined amongst the British but it's now massive amongst hip hop types in America. Courvoisier and Hennessy are the favoured brands. So successful has this unlikely collaboration been that Max Beaulieu, from cognac-expert.com, thinks their should be a statue of Busta Rhymes in Cognac. You should Google Beaulieu’s interview with the writer Nicholas Faith just to hear Faith reciting rap lyrics in his patrician English accent [it's from 13:05]. I was going to quote some but there is an awful lot of swearing.

It’s a long way from Wodehouse.

H. Jeffreys, Empire of Booze (2016), 169

In the Guardian article version of this chapter, he quotes Ja Rule’s (of whom I have never heard): “Feel the rage as it stirs behind me, I don’t give a fuck as they don’t give a fuck about me. I keep drinking Hennessy, bustin’ at my enemies.”

There was a very influential beer faction in the House of Lords that became known as the Beerage

There was a very influential beer faction in the House of Lords that became known as the Beerage. The Liberals blamed the loss of the 1874 General Election on the influence of the big brewers and distillers in the Conservative Party. Gladstone's Licensing Acts of 1870 had disturbed those vested interests. Gladstone wrote that "More immediately operative causes have determined the elections. I have no doubt what is the principal. We have been borne down in a torrent of gin and beer.

H. Jeffreys Empire of Booze (2016), 136

When he arrived at Cambridge University he took 2,000 bottles of port with him

The prize for the rowdiest port drinker goes to a Shropshire squire called John Mytton who drank between four and six bottles of port a day. he was thought to have been permanently drunk for most of his adult life. He once set fire to his nightshirt in order to cure hiccups. When he arrived at Cambridge University he took 2,000 bottles of port with him. He left without any port or a degree. Briefly MP for Shrewsbury, he was more famous for his drunken exploits. Mytton's biographer, Charles James Apperley, wrote: "He once rode this bear into his drawing-room, in full hunting costume, The bear carried him very quietly for a time; but on being pricked by the spur he bit his rider through the calf of his leg." Mytton died aged 37, his enormous inheritance nearly spent (on port).

H. Jeffreys, Empire of Booze (2016), 44