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BITS AND BOBS<br />
BOOK REVIEW: SPIRITS DISTILLED<br />
Anyone who has attended one of<br />
Mark Ridgwell’s Taste and Flavour<br />
spirit-tasting sessions will know<br />
what to expect from his latest<br />
book, Spirits Distilled. The sessions<br />
are great fun: Mark talks about<br />
one particular type of spirit for<br />
about half an hour as his audience<br />
sits in front of eight different<br />
half-measure variants of that<br />
drink in plastic cups, covered by<br />
a piece of paper to stop evaporation.<br />
Taste buds moisten with<br />
anticipation as, with the aid of a flip chart, he goes<br />
through the economical, chemical, sociological and<br />
geo-political nature of the spirit in question. And<br />
then comes the best bit: he talks you through the<br />
different versions of the drink in front of you, from<br />
the cheap and nasty to the double distilled, as you<br />
sip, and learn, and sip, and learn.<br />
This book is, in effect, all those<br />
talks rolled into one. He describes<br />
the history and explains the process<br />
of distillation, then dedicates a<br />
chapter each to: vodka, tequila, gin,<br />
rum, brandy, liqueurs, eaux-de-vie,<br />
Irish whisky, American whiskey,<br />
Canadian whisky, Japanese whisky<br />
and Scotch. At the end of every<br />
chapter there are cocktail recipes,<br />
and a multiple-choice comprehension<br />
test to make sure you’ve been<br />
paying attention. Warning: if you attempt to drink<br />
along to what you’re reading about, these tests are<br />
likely to get more and more difficult as the book<br />
progresses. A fine stocking filler, for those that like<br />
a tot or two. Bottoms up… AL<br />
£19.99, available at Harvey's shop<br />
CLOCKS OF LEWES #1: THE DEPOT CLOCK<br />
In Spring 2017, the Depot<br />
will open in its new incarnation<br />
as an independent<br />
cinema. It'll be the<br />
building's third use, after<br />
roles for the post office<br />
and Harvey's. The Depot<br />
Cinema will be state-ofthe-art.<br />
The building itself<br />
is a lot older. Or is it? Victorian?<br />
Edwardian? No. It<br />
was built in 1937, and was fairly utilitarian. It was<br />
Harvey's that added the trappings that gave it an<br />
older feel, including the clock tower, in 1997.<br />
When the conversion into a cinema began, Carmen<br />
Slijpen, creative director, and John Downie, a former<br />
engineering lecturer, investigated the stopped<br />
clock. John says "the whole thing was corroded solid",<br />
but he got it working.<br />
As it was a modern clock,<br />
however, from Hawkins<br />
Clock Co of Peterborough,<br />
he recommended<br />
they simply replace it<br />
with the same model –<br />
for its automatic daylight<br />
savings radio link and to<br />
mitigate any potential<br />
problems.<br />
The new one might be in the tower by the time<br />
you're reading this. The older one, meanwhile, its<br />
fibreglass face repainted, will take up a new position<br />
within the cinema: giving punters enjoying a prefilm<br />
drink or meal the option to glance up and see<br />
if it's time for their screening to start.<br />
Daniel Etherington<br />
Photo by John Downie<br />
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