Asked to create a series of illustrations on whisky and its ways, Ralph Steadman embraced the subject with enthusiasm. Enthralled by an industry steeped in rich folklore and mysterious tales as dark as peat, and by the magical liquid that it produces, he embarked on the whisky trail. Travelling the length and breadth of Scotland and its islands he visited distilleries and explored the landscapes on which their whisky depends; he talked to the characters behind them - to the workers and distillers whose nose for the nuances of every inhalation brings them "as near as a human being can get to emulating the homing instinct of a salmon swimming up river to breed". Within the pages of this book, informed and irreverent at the same time, the reader can discover the essence of the truly great whiskies and also less familiar pleasures in the unexpected finds Steadman makes along the way.