PLEASE NOTE LATER START TIME THAN OTHER EVENTS IN THIS SERIES

* WHY NOT ACCOMPANY THE EVENT WITH SOME BEER? DETAILS BELOW*

This book was my first attempt to move away from beer as such into broader social history. The George is a remarkable pub, the last galleried coaching inn in London, but the real story of the pub is not the architecture or the building materials - interesting though these aspects are - it's why the George has survived for centuries. Why it grew in the way it did, in the place it did. And that's the story of the people who drank in it.

This is a story about three of the four leading lights of English Literature, of bear fights and theatres, sex workers and historic detective work, raids, royal lock-ins and the philosphical link between Aristotle and Sugababes.

This is when I started to really reach as a writer and play around with language, structure, and the mechanics of storytelling. It was my most successful book to that point - it was broadcast as Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4, read by Tony "Baldric" Robinson - and consequently almost ended my writing career.

I'll be discussing all this and more, then opening it up to a Q&A, after which, those who want to can stay on for a general beery chat.

As a suggested accompaniment, I've worked with Best of British Beer again to do a box of beers from London breweries, all in beer styles that evolved in London and would have been drunk in the George at some pont. Details of the box are here:

https://www.bestofbritishbeer.co.uk/mixed-cases/shakespeareslocal.html

Once you've bought your ticket for the event, you'll have access to a special discount code for the box.