Three sheets to the wind - Pete Brown

Having written Man Walks Into A Pub, an irreverent book about beer drinking in Britain, Pete Brown thought he deserved a holiday. Leaving Britain was one thing, but getting away from beer proved impossible. For while the British believe beer is, well, British, it seems a few others have cottoned on to the fact its damn fine drink. In fact it turns out there are seven countries that make more beer than Britain and - hard though it is to believe - there are at least five countries that drink more beer per-head of the population than we do. The Germans claim beer as their own; the Czechs, it turns out, invented lager; the Chinese like their beer made from rice and the Spanish see it as trendy new drink, far more fashionable than wine. What's going on? After a great deal of thought (about 15 seconds), Peter Brown decided the only way to find out was to go on the biggest pub crawl ever. Drinking in more than three hundred bars and pubs in twenty-seven towns in thirteen different countries on four different continents, Pete puts on a stone in weight and does irrecoverable damage to his liver in the pursuit of saloon bar enlightenment. On his way he meets a wild cast of bleary eyed eccentrics and samples legendary local brews in legendary quantities, from Dublin to Tokyo. It's an epic challenge, a hilarious, life-changing, globe-trotting adventure to the heart of Beer.

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. He contributes to various newspapers, magazines and beer trade press titles, writes the annual report on Britain's cask ale market, sings beer's praises on TV and radio, and runs an influential blog. In 2009, Pete was awarded the Michael Jackson Gold Tankard Award and named Beer Writer of the Year by the British Guild of Beer Writers.

(No, not that Michael Jackson, the other one.)