I was very pleased to receive this note in my email this morning:

I am delighted to tell you that Beer: The Story of the Pint was awarded the gold tankard for best beer book 2003 at the British Guild of Beer Writers annual awards last night.

Martyn Cornell

You will recall that Martyn is a correspondent at sister-site Genx 40. Nice to see the award comes with a 1,000 pounds sterling which should buy a round or two down at the pub. I would be every interested to learn the reviews of Ale-fan and Fred Madagascar, two regular readers in northern England, the latter a publican, the former the publican's best friend - the regular customer. I also noted that the book in hardcover is on the shelf at Indigo! on Princess Street in Kingson.

Martyn is a big wig in the world of ales and it is a real point of pride that he has taken the time to pop in here from time to time. I am also pleased [and yet a little puzzled] that Google places our discussion here third, right behind Amazon's listing of the book.