Some writers drink to dull the world. Others drink to taste it more clearly. In the smoky salons of Paris, the back rooms of London clubs, or the balmy nights of the Caribbean, cocktails have long been companions to many writers — as ritual, rebellion, or reward.
Here’s a tour through eight of literature’s best barflies, and the drinks that fuelled their genius.
1. F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Dreamer of the Jazz Age
- Favourite drink: Gin Rickey (60ml gin, juice of half a lime, top with soda water. Serve over ice in a highball glass)
- Essential read: The Great Gatsby
Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald practically defined the Prohibition-era party scene. While champagne flows freely in Gatsby, Fitzgerald himself was partial to gin, believing its scent was harder to detect (which didn’t fool many). The Gin Rickey — light, tart, and bubbly — became one of his signatures. The drinks available to Gatsby’s guests are similarly described as appearing out of thin air:
“A tray of cocktails floated at us through the twilight and we sat down at a table with the two girls in yellow and three men, each one introduced to us as Mr. Mumble”
2. Dorothy Parker – Wit with a Twist
- Favourite drink: Martini (60ml London dry gin, 10ml dry vermouth, stir with ice and strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist or olive)
- Essential read: Enough Rope (poetry), The Portable Dorothy Parker
A charter member of the Algonquin Round Table writers, Parker’s acerbic tongue and razor wit were often sharpened by cocktails. Her most quoted verse says it all:
“I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
Three, I’m under the table,
Four, I’m under my host.”
Parker made the dry martini into an accessory of intellectual flirtation and feminine defiance.
3. Ernest Hemingway – The Precision Drinker
- Favourite drink: Daiquiri, or Papa Doble (60ml white rum, 15ml lime juice, 15ml grapefruit juice, 5ml maraschino liqueur. Shake with ice, serve in a coupe)
- Essential read: The Sun Also Rises
Hemingway frequently featured cocktails in his writings, showcasing a fondness for certain drinks and even creating his own. For instance, the Jack Rose – a mix of applejack, lemon or lime juice, and grenadine – appears in The Sun Also Rises as a drink enjoyed by the characters. Like many famous writers in his day, Hemingway himself loved drinks that were strong, stripped down, and exacting.
“My mojito in La Bodeguita, my daiquiri in El Floridita.”
He was known for customising the daiquiri into a no-sugar, double-rum version known as the Papa Doble at the El Floridita bar in Havana. The head bartender then added maraschino liqueur and grapefruit juice, creating the Hemingway Special.
4. P.G. Wodehouse – Highballs and Hijinks
- Favourite drink: Whatever Jeeves mixes
- Essential read: Carry On, Jeeves
In Wodehouse’s comic world, cocktails appear not just as libations but as solutions. The book introduces the charmingly inept Bertie Wooster who’s perpetually entangled in romantic misadventures, and who’s often saved by his steady butler, Jeeves.
However, the most mentioned cocktail seems to be Bertie’s “nightly whisky-and-soda” – a classic combination of any spirit-and-soda dubbed a “highball.”
“Stiffish, Jeeves. Not too much soda, but splash the brandy about a bit.”
Bertie is often seen seeking solace in his evening cocktail — and in Jeeves’s infamous hangover remedy, a restorative mystery mix that may or may not include Worcestershire sauce and red pepper.
5. Ian Fleming – Danger in a Glass
- Favourite drink: Vesper Martini (60ml gin, 20ml vodka, 10ml Lillet Blanc – a modern replacement for Kina Lillet. Shake well, serve in a martini glass with a lemon twist)
- Essential read: Casino Royale
Everybody probably knows the phrase “shaken, not stirred,” but in Casino Royale, James Bond’s drink order is literature’s most famous cocktail instruction:
“Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel.”
Invented in Casino Royale (1953), the Vesper Martini is smooth, strong, and deliberate — just like Bond. As far as writers go, Fleming’s personal tastes shaped his spy’s, blending precision and indulgence into an iconic drinking ritual.
6. Evelyn Waugh – Decadence in Disguise
- Favourite drink: Brandy Alexander (30ml brandy, 30ml crème de cacao, 30ml cream. Shake with ice and strain into a coupe. Garnish with grated nutmeg)
- Essential read: Brideshead Revisited
Waugh’s world of English aristocracy is fuelled by denial, beauty, and brandy-based desserts in liquid form. The Brandy Alexander — rich, creamy, a bit absurd — fits Brideshead Revisited like a velvet glove. The character Anthony Blanche orders “four Alexander cocktails” during a night out with Charles Ryder and delivers this line:
“Two for you and two for me. Yum. Yum.”
The drink’s indulgence mirrors the excesses of Sebastian Flyte, who carries a teddy bear to Oxford and drinks himself slowly into ruin.
Waugh was a cantankerous drunk, credited with creating the Noonday Reviver, which has 1 hefty shot of gin, half a pint of Guinness, some ginger beer.
7. Truman Capote – Charm and Champagne
- Favourite drink: Screwdriver (60ml vodka, 90ml orange juice, 5ml sugar syrup, 3 dashes bitters)
- Essential read: Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Capote loved cocktails that walked the line between elegance and mischief. In Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Holly Golightly orders a White Angel cocktail at the beginning of the tale, which is described as “something new… one-half vodka, one-half gin, no vermouth” – basically a (strong) variation of martini.
“Promise me one thing: don’t take me home until I’m drunk – very drunk indeed.”
Cocktails in Capote’s work are like masks — they help characters become who they wish to be, even if only for the evening.
8. Kingsley Amis – The Writer’s Booze Bard
- Favourite drink: anything strong, like Vodka Martini (60ml vodka, 10ml dry vermouth. Stir with ice, strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a lemon twist or olive)
- Essential read: Everyday Drinking
Kingsley Amis wasn’t just a novelist — he was a cocktail essayist, producing some of the finest (and funniest) writing on alcohol ever published. He combined his literary brain with unapologetic booziness, championing everything from Morning Revivers to Evening Openers.
“A proper drink at the right time—one man’s opinion—is one of the great human pleasures.”
He took his drinks seriously — and wrote about them with both rigour and flair.
9. Somerset Maugham – Empire in a Glass
- Favourite drink: Gin Pahit or Gin Sling (45ml gin, 15ml cherry liqueur or Bénédictine, 10ml lime juice, dash of Angostura bitters, top with soda water. Serve over ice in a tall glass with a lime wheel)
- Essential read: The Gentleman in the Parlour, The Casuarina Tree
One of our region’s colonial writers, Maugham’s stories unfold in the colonial outposts of Southeast Asia, where the evening cocktail was less about indulgence and more about endurance. A gin sling at sunset, a whisky soda under a whirring fan — in his world, cocktails were buffers against boredom and isolation, sipped slowly while the tropics hummed with regret. During Maugham’s heyday, the gin sling became known as the Singapore Sling (with small modifications).
“The first-class passengers sauntered aimlessly about the promenade deck. Most of the men made for the smoking-room and sought to cheer themselves with whiskies and sodas and gin slings.”
Final Toast
These writers didn’t just write about cocktails — they lived in their glow. For some, drinking was joy or elegance; for others, escape. But in all cases, the cocktail becomes a symbol: of era, of mood, of self.
So next time you mix a drink, raise a glass to these literary legends. And maybe, just maybe, start the next great novel.
