The finest whisky book ever'

If I could take only one whisky book to a desert island it would be Aeneas MacDonald's Whisky'

This is a small volume but there are plenty who will love it. It is airy, witty, full of sound knowledge and practical wisdom'

A highly entertaining read: personal and opinionated, and providing a valuable insight into the Scotch whisky industry'

Among the generous pour of publishings to please whisky fans, one stand-out is a long-awaited new edition of Whisky by Aeneas MacDonald ... [h]is literary musings on matters of malt and more, first published in 1930, are widely hailed as among the best writing on the subject. The new edition features period illustrations and an appreciation by writer Ian Buxton, who was instrumental in bringing the book to the masses'

an absolute triumph… Aeneas MacDonald's original text emerges as a superbly-written celebration of whisky… Many, many books have been written about whisky since Aeneas MacDonald first sat down at his typewriter. It is nice to be able to conclude, thanks to the efforts of Birlinn and of Ian Buxton, that one of the first books on the subject remains one of the best'

Original copies of ‘Whisky’, Aeneas MacDonald’s 1930 book, now change hands for hundreds of pounds, so it’s canny publishing to release a new edition in time for Christmas. MacDonald, the pseudonym of journalist George Malcolm, was one of the first writers to bring an amateur’s eye to what had previously been a dry, technical subject. He was not an expert, and part of the joy of this new edition is Ian Buxton’s humorous commentary correcting him. In fact, it can be read as a good-natured argument between two greats of whisky writing'

This slim little volume is a glorious polemic, and today’s readers are helped enormously by the introduction and text annotations offered by spirits scribe Ian Buxton who deploys his pen as scalpel, exposing both the unfortunate innards of the original author and cutting to the chase'