Although I’ve had a lot to say about beer over the years, from time to time The Session has had me pausing for a moment while I try to work out exactly how I was going to contribute. No such difficulties were presented by Session 147, where Phil Cook at his Beer Diary asks us to take a break from the real and offer examples of the appearances of beer in art and in fiction.
There is absolutely nothing comparable to a great beer, eagerly anticipated after a period of forced (or chosen) abstention – nothing. When I say “abstention” I could be mean anything from a prolonged period of days, weeks or months, right through to the relief at no more than the end of a work day. The sheer delight of those almost untasted first gulps breaking across and over the tongue remains an utterly unmatched experience. I’ve only ever seen one example in art/fiction where that has been truly captured, and that is from the 1958 World War II film Ice Cold in Alex starring the late, great English actor John Mills.
If you’re not familiar with the story its a convoluted tale of a small group of British Army soldiers and a nurse who become separated from their colleagues and end up traveling across the the North African desert in order to reach Alexandria in Egypt and relative safety. The main character played by Mills is an alcoholic. Through a series of plot twists this fact somewhat strangely leads to him declaring that he won’t take another drink until he gets to Alexandria, and gives the film its title. All of this leads to the “beer scene” near the end of the movie that inspired my contribution to Session 147.
To read more about the specifics of the beer used in the film, I suggest that you simply read Pete Brown’s 2010 blog post about the same, there’s really no need for me re-hash all of that here.
And there you have it. I didn’t know that Pete had written about this prior to me thinking about Session 147, but the fact that he had – and 15 years ago – perhaps indicates just how much this scene reverberates with Brits of a certain age who love beer.
