Remembering Michael Jackson"No one goes into a restaurant and requests 'a plate of food, please'. People do not simply ask for 'a glass of wine' without specifying, at the very least, whether they fancy red or white, dry or sweet, perhaps sparkling or still . . .
"When their mood switches from the grape to the grain, these same discerning folk often ask simply for 'a beer', or perhaps name a brand, without thinking of its suitability for the mood or the moment . . . Beer is by far the more extensively consumed but less adequately honoured drink. In a small way, I want to help put right that injustice."
That was how Michael Jackson, the world's greatest beer writer, introduced his worldwide guide to beer in 1991. He died a fortnight ago, aged 65, after a 10-year struggle with Parkinson's disease. Before he took to writing about beer and, later, whisky, Jackson created Campaign, the weekly newspaper for the UK advertising and PR industries. But as a drinks writer and broadcaster, he had no equal.
He wrote with vast knowledge but with a light touch. He was the antithesis of pretension, yet he was the first to develop a useful vocabulary for describing the taste and texture of beer. He was a great champion of Irish microbreweries, and I enjoyed many a pint with him at the Porterhouse in Temple Bar. Tom Doorley
Good food guide
A food writer and a restaurant critic living together could be a recipe for plump tummies and yo-yo diets, but the cookery-book author Jill Dupleix and her husband, Terry Durack of the Independent on Sunday, devised a way of eating well without piling on the pounds. Lighten Up, Dupleix's new book, is a template for healthy but satisfying eating. "Bad" things aren't banned, just reworked, such as "ice cream" made only with fruit (bananas are the secret) and cute paper-wrapped quiches (left) made without pastry. The lifestyle choice is clearly working for Dupleix and her husband, who revised his eating habits when he tipped the scales at over 115kg (18st). Now, 38kg (six stone) lighter, he denies ever having been on a diet, describing it as a rethink. "If you fill up on the good stuff, there isn't room for the bad stuff," he says. Lighten Up is published by Quadrille, £16.99 in UK. Marie-Claire Digby