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Write what you know. This age-old adage has been offered up for centuries as the key to literary success.

Well, Nicholas Pashley knows his beer, and he also knows how to make a history of beer seem like a merry chat at the pub with your mates. There is a definite Bill Brysonesque feel to the book, which mixes history and humour in copious amounts. Chapter titles such as “Are you a beer geek? (There’s no right answer)” and “Get real: The day I met a beer angel” provide a feeling of the author’s tongue-in-cheek style.

My only complaints are, first, that it would have been nice to include some photographs, and secondly, that the drunken double-vision gimmick used for the cover image and author photo doesn’t work — at least not for me.

Yet Pashley is clearly passionate about his pints, and he has written a book that is sometimes cheeky, sometimes surprising, but always entertaining. If your thirst for knowledge about ales and lagers needs quenching, then Cheers! is the answer.