The Guinness Alice

The Guinness Alice by Ronald Barton and Robert Bevan.

Pamphlet published by Guinness in 1933, and printed in Great Britain by John Waddington Ltd.

Illustrated by John Gilroy

I have the second edition with full colour illustrations: the first edition had both colour and line drawings.

This series of pamphlets are called “Doctor’s Books” as they were sent to GPs’ surgeries to encourage the drinking of Guinness for medical purposes: very good for nursing mothers for example!

Guinness began this in 1933, carried on until World War 2 halted the practice, and it only started again in 1950. The booklets were then produced each year until 1966. They were produced by the advertising agency SH Benson, who made  many of the iconic Guinness ads. This was the first of the 24 booklets, and the first of five based on Alice. I have all of them, so they’ll all make it onto here eventually…

This is graphically the simplest of the Guiness Alices, with spoof versions of several poems and scenes from the books.

Here’s Old Father William:

“You are old Father WIliiam”, the Young Man said,

“And yet you’re remarkably fit,

You sleep from the moment you get into bed,

Which is rare at your age, you’ll admit.”

“In my youth,” said the Sage, “I heard many reports

That Guiness brought rest to the brain,

Since when, if depressed or a bit out of sorts,

I’ve drunk it again and again.”

I might get round to scanning in some of the pages once I’m a bit more caught up with myself…

Available on amazon: The Guinness Alice
(I got mine cheap on ebay…)

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