What We're Reading

TV's Oz Clarke and James May tread a fine line - and not only because they have taken grape and grain in vast quantities.

Their odd couple schtick stays just this side of irritating solely because the subject matter is close to the heart of every true Englishman - British beer and attendant alcoholic beverages.

Increasingly stale and laboured (the partnership not the drink), the last series may well be the last series - although the two of them - nice chaps both - clearly relish the freedom to act out their eccentricities, animosities and prejudices, working under the delusion that their patter is endearing.

The book Oz And James Drink To Britain, sadly, takes all the ghastly and patronising parts of their Punch and Judy act and sticks them on the page for all to see.

Containing quirky cut-out headshots, wacky arrows, fake coffee rings, type at angles and the like, it is the confused offspring of Dorling Kindersley and a teenager's be-doodled chemistry work book.

This is a shoddy job that mashes two interesting people and an interesting subject matter and manages only to produce something weak, watery and wasteful. A disappointing brew.