Pete Brown's SHAKESPEARE'S LOCAL is Radio 4 Book of the Week

Listen to Pete Brown's SHAKESPEARE'S LOCAL on Radio 4's Book of the Week 

TUNE IN HERE: Book of the Week

Welcome to the George Inn near London Bridge; a cosy, wood-pannelled, galleried coaching house a few minutes' walk from the Thames. Grab yourself a pint, listen to the chatter of the locals and consider this: who else has made this their local over the last 600 years? Chaucer and his fellow pilgrims almost certainly drank in the George on their way out of London to Canterbury. Shakespeare may well have popped in from the nearby Globe for a pint, and we know that Dickens definitely did. Mail carriers changed their horses here, before heading to all four corners of Britain -- while sailors drank here before visiting all four corners of the world... The pub, as Pete Brown points out, is the 'primordial cell of British life' and in the George he has found the perfect case study. All life is here, from murderers, highwaymen and ladies of the night to gossiping pedlars and hard-working clerks. So sit back and watch as buildings rise and fall over the centuries, and 'the beer drinker's Bill Bryson' (TLS) takes us on an entertaining tour through six centuries of history, through the stories of everyone that ever drank in one pub.

Author: Pete Brown used to advertise beer for a living before he realized that writing about it was even more fun, and came with even more free beer. In 2009, Pete was named Beer Writer of the Year by the British Guild of Beer Writers. He is the author of Man Walks into a Pub: A Sociable History of Beer; Three Sheets to the Wind and Hops and Glory.

Reader: Tony Robinson is best-known for his portrayal of Baldrick in the Blackadder series. He also presented Channel' 4's TV's Time Team, and is the author of numerous children's books.

Praise for SHAKESPEARE'S LOCAL:

“Brown is an unashamed beer nerd but by some happy twist of fate he’s also a fascinating and engaging writer. Social history through the story of a single pub, told by a man you’d genuinely want to drink with.” Financial Times Best Books of 2012 (Food)

 “Brown’s research brings up such a multitude of stories and characters that, at times, reading this book feels less like an historical volume and more like quality elaborate fiction. Shakespeare’s Local is guaranteed to teach you English history in a way you’d never expect – and some pretty handy knowledge for pub quizzes along the way.” Bookseller

“For all the facts and anecdotes, it’s the author’s voice that really makes Shakespeare’s Local fun to read. Often-sarcastic footnotes and dropped-in gags (including a wonderfully stretched metaphor about the Sugababes) lend the book a feel that it’s all being told to you over a cosy pint. Which is rather fitting." Londonist

‘An exuberant social history written in a matey, tipsy-man-at-the-bar style... a literary version of a cracking pub crawl’ Telegraph

“Pete Brown's engaging and irreverent social history... frequently feels as if he's buttonholed you in the George itself to tell you an anecdote over a pint... he has countless fascinating stories to tell.” Observer

'Beer-lover Brown is charmingly modest, but he spins a stoutly colourful yarn, and ends with some bracing scepticism about the modern "heritage industry".’ Guardian

“Shakespeare's Local is an engaging, entertaining, often illuminating and wilfully digressive account of the history not only of the George but of an area of London that will be of interest to students of the capital and, en passant, of brewing, drinking, coaching inns and much more besides.”Herald