The Pub Manifesto by James Dowdeswell

The Pub Manifesto: A Comedian stands up for pubs by James Dowdeswell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was disappointed with this book. I thought it would be more of a political tale of how we can stand up to our pubs in a light-hearted way. Instead, we’re treated to what makes an ideal pub. There’s plenty of interesting historical facts about the elements of each pub, together with some legendary stories of Dowdeswell’s experiences and a few recommendations of examples to visit, but that’s about it. And of course, not every pub is able to live up to his ideal requirements without some costly drastic alterations. He touches briefly on the state of pub ownership but doesn’t really address the elephant in the room. The result is more of a guide of what to think about if you want to run a pub. The book also seems a rush job as there’s several grammatical mistakes that the proof-readers missed. I think I could do better with my experience of visiting pubs and campaigning for them. I can already picture the opening chapter…

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