50 Years of Camra by Laura Hadland

Who would have thought that when four friends headed off on holiday to Ireland in 1971, they would ultimately set up the Campaign for Real Ale – (Camra)? This year is the 50th anniversary of what ostensibly started as a joke but became Europe’s most significant single-issue consumer movement.

Acclaimed drinks writer Laura Hadland put her lockdown to good use, having already begun her meticulous research on the book when coronavirus hit. The pandemic gave her even more to write about.

As well as covering the past, the campaigning, lobbying and the like in superb detail, she has comments on Camra today and now, while we all wait nervously to see the effect that the past 20 months will have on small independent pubs and real ale.