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Shire horses are delivering beer to customers in a Yorkshire village

Samuel Smith’s Brewery has been loading up its team of Shire horses with drinks and snacks to dispatch to residents.



A Yorkshire brewery running a drinks delivery service during lockdown is transporting beer, wine and cider to thirsty locals by Shire horse. While some UK pubs have been dropping off groceries and refreshments by car, van or bike, Samuel Smith’s Brewery, in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, is loading up its team of Shire horses with drinks and snacks to dispatch to residents in the area during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Established in 1758, Samuel Smith is Yorkshire’s oldest brewery and the business prides itself on selling “high-quality” beer made from natural ingredients. Among its longest-serving employees are its grey Shire horses, which are stabled behind a pub beside the brewery. Until recently, the animals were tasked with transporting casks in and around Tadcaster - now they are travelling door to door, delivering beer directly to locals.

Advertising the service online, the brewer wrote: “We have set up our Shire horse home delivery service for Tadcaster! Order cases of beer, cider, wine, snacks and even potatoes, and they will be delivered to your front door by our Shire horses.”

Customers can choose from a wide array of lagers, ales and ciders, with a case of 12 550ml bottles of organic lager costing £35.40, 12 355ml bottles of organic fruit beer priced at £30.60 and 12 550ml bottles of oatmeal stout going for £34.20.

Something my brother davesmusictank might find interesting!

Book 30 - Iris Murdoch "A Word Child"

Iris Murdoch "A Word Child" (Vintage)





Hilary Burde is the word child of the title. In school, the only thing he did really well in was languages. He excelled at words, but not in using them creatively; his interest was in learning how they worked together; the grammar, not the poetry. An abused orphan, his plan was to get a position at Oxford- which he did- and bring his sister, Crystal, to come to live with him and be educated by him. But an ill-advised love affair with a married woman results in a tragedy and he finds himself working at a dead-end government job, his sister supporting herself as a seamstress. He has a girlfriend, Tommy, who he treats horribly, and a few friends who tolerate him. It seems he has found his niche- or, rather, his rut- and will go on this way. Until the wronged husband of his ill-advised love affair comes to work as a higher-up at the office he works at. How will he deal with this? Will he do the right thing this time around?

Burde is a thoroughly unlikable character. He’s weak, he’s narcissistic, he expects the women in his life to just orbit quietly around him until he has a use for them. He has no ambition and no longer any dreams. Basically, he contributes little or nothing to the world. Despite this, Murdoch as managed to make the novel one I could not stop reading. I have to admit it was rather like watching a slow-motion car crash, one where you wonder how many others he will take down with him this time.

Thankfully, the supporting cast members are more likeable than Burde- well, most of them are. His office mates are pretty strange. All the supporting characters show themselves, ultimately, to have a lot more to themselves than Burde assumes- they have life, love, and volition beyond their association with him. A very good book all around.

Book 31 - Michael Brooks " 13 Things That Don't Make Sense"

Michael Brooks " 13 Things That Don't Make Sense" (Profile Books)




Brooks' exploration of science's current conundrums is provocative and at times satisfyingly eerie, examining the deadlocks we've reached, and positing that maybe these stumpers mean that we're on the brink of a revolution. 13 of today's bafflers, from dark energy to the placebo effect, are explained.

Brooks starts out in one of my favourite realms to consider: cosmology, with the hint of quantum. These areas are wonderful playthings for the dilettante. I like to skip the math, education, logic and levelheadedness and go straight for the wacky and fun. And Brooks lets me do that, lets me revisit my favourite pop pet theories. The first few chapters are the most fun, covering those big, fun, universe-sized physics topics.

The later paradoxes in the books, the ones involving biology and chemistry, lack the lustre of these first topics. Somehow the inexplicable success of homeopathy's quackery and a perplexing giant virus doesn't stand up to the hair-raising queerness of the Viking crafts' extra-solar system trajectory oddities, nor the notion that our fundamental constants may be inaccurate on cosmic scales or simply not constant at all. Shortly, it's clear that Brooks is a physicist, and that's where he shines.

A clear and entertaining read, unobtrusively constructed and well-researched.