In the 70s and early 80s, times now so far away the thought leaves you reeling, this splendidly humane old chuffpot knocked out three great little books on drinking, one of the areas of life  along with jazz and bemusement and women  to which he brought grand amateur enthusiasm. Unaccountably out of print  unaccountable until you remember the last 15 dull years  the three have been brought together in this estimable collection and given a feisty (with wise minor barbs) intro by Christopher Hitchens. The result is joyous.

There are quotable quotes a-bundle, on everything from bad pubs to the only effective hangover cure (tears, really, and guilt: nothing works other than a good little existential cry, then whack on with life). Some essays are Orwellian in the perfection of their distillation. Amis's love and anger and sense bubble throughout. It's a shame he didn't see much of the past 20 years, the renewed British love of food and drink; he had to make the best sometimes of Blue Nun, and angry olives. But the advice, on everything from the nuances of hospitality  a very subtle man he was, wise in avoiding the pointless spending of money yet unstinting in open generosity  to bad bores and good whisky is wise to the point of laughing adoration, and thoroughly non-PC. His enthusiasm leads him to want to tell you so much you need to know, about fizz and manners and grapes and history and snobbishness; his professionalism, of course, lies in his writing, and he and his times live again, here, with their freedom and exuberance and terrible old blinkers.

On balance, drink added more to Kingsley Amis's life than it took away. Whether you read this in clever chatty sips, adventurous gulps or one long joyous all-out binge, the book will do the same for yours; and it's hard to think of a better gift for any man of a certain age, blessed with a decent helping of brains and a life well lived, and a death to await leavened only by drink and humanity and good anger, and remembered love, and laughter. This is an immensely hospitable book.