Burt, the hound of Beelzebub, has risen from the dead, Gadget the miniature horse has moved into the kitchen and Tommy has decided to expand his beer business, and on the advice of his wife Rose, is thinking about distilling gin, what can possibly go wrong? With Brexit looming, a second baby on the way, and sales of IPA beer plummeting, trouble is brewing in the Loire. Shortlisted for the Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards 2019, Tommy Barnes' first book, A Beer in the Loire, told the tale of a year lurching from disaster to disaster as attempted to escape the rat race by starting a brewery in one of the finest wine-producing regions on the planet.

Prizes

Runner-up for Fortnum and Mason Food and Drink Book Award 2018

'A candid, brilliantly human book full of laugh out loud moments, and lots of beer'. Rosie Birkett. 'An anti-hero to the home brewer, Barnes' writing froths and unexpectedly eddies, his second work is certainly no stuck fermentation' 'Douglas Blyde, Drinks columnist Evening Standard magazine. 'If, like the late Peter Mayle, Tommy Barnes decides to write a sequel it will be a must read.' Life Begins at 40. 'He writes so well and is funny too' James McConnachie, author of The Rough Guide to France. 'Delicious' Daily Telegraph'. 'Tommy's antics are hilarious. Like Brewing meets Bake Off in rural France'. James Dowdeswell.

Tommy Barnes was raised in Hertfordshire and following several degrees, became a graphic designer. In 2016 he moved to the Loire Valley in France with his girlfriend (now wife) Rose. Three years after establishing his British microbrewery in the heart of French wine country, Tommy Barnes is planning to expand and modernise, with calamitous results...