A Metaphysical Elation -- on the real

Anthony Burgess (1917–94) lived longer than Sherlock Holmes – an astonishing fact, given the evidence of a forthcoming biography, The Real Life of Anthony Burgess by Andrew Biswell. According to Mr Biswell, the Burgess household got through a dozen bottles of gin a week in the 1960s, even though “they hardly ever entertained visitors”. This fortified Burgess when not at the dinner table (“a couple of bottles of wine”) or at the local pub (“pints of beer with double whisky chasers”).

Burgess was a prodigious writer of novels, essays, reviews, customarily producing more than one piece per day. To help him through slow periods, Biswell reports, “he would take three dexedrine tablets, washing them down with a pint of iced gin and tonic”. When in need of a pick-me-up, he mixed a cocktail, Hangman’s Blood, described to readers of the Guardian in 1966:

“Into a pint beer-glass doubles of the following are poured: gin, whisky, rum, port, and brandy. A small bottle of stout is added, and the whole topped up with champagne. It induces a somehow metaphysical elation, and rarely leaves a hangover”