Imperialist Beverages

Dave and I enjoyed a number of India Pale Ales this past weekend, but with all the Brideshead-watching we did and the Sword of Honor reading on Dave's part, you may have wondered well, keeping in the vague British-colonial spirit of things,  where the devil are the pink gins?  

They are the favored drink of officers and gentlemen.

But I actually first encountered the pink gin not in Evelyn's work but in a book by his brother, Alec: Hot Countries. My copy isn't here with me in Ohio, so I'd like to make an InterLibrary Loan request from whoever in the family does have it.  A great accompanying summer beach read is Alec's book Island in the Sun. It's nowhere near the quality of Evelyn's novels. It is almost as equally amusing though. Part of the amusing quality is that it's just a knockoff of Crime and Punishment, set in a British West India colony, with plenty of pink gin to go around.