George Orwell a man fond of a pint used to write about his fantasy pub The Moon Under Water in his Evening Standard columns—two minutes from the bus stop where drunks and rowdies never seemed to find their way . . . where there was no music and motherly barmaids called you dear while pouring pints in red china mugs. That was the 1940s; today the streets have been taken over by cheapened identical lounge bars (the Wetherspoons chain has 14 The Moon Under Waters) and the pub as a cornerstone of British life has never been more under threat. What with smoking bans and the cost of a round being roughly equivalent to the price of a multipack from a supermarket there are something like 57 pubs closing every week. In searching for the perfect pub Paul Moody and Robin Turner head off in pursuit of pubs that fizz with independence and a true frontier spirit along the way raising a glass to 2000 years of British brewing history.