Teet

In the fall of 2015, The Wall Street Journal ran an article on its front page which effectively set the biotechnology world and the insular Silicon Valley scene on fire. Theranos, a much hailed start-up which was disrupting the world of healthcare and led by a visionary young woman, was a fraud, the story claimed.

In The Book of Gin, Richard Barnett traces the life of this beguiling spirit, once believed to cause a new kind of drunkenness. In the 18th century, gin-craze debauchery (and class conflict) inspired Hogarth's satirical masterpieces "Gin Lane" and "Beer Street". In the 19th century, gin was drunk by Napoleonic War naval heroes, at lavish gin palaces, and by homesick colonials, who mixed it with their bitter anti-malarial tonics.