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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Guinness
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A leading international company in the manufacture of alcoholic drinks. It derives from a brewery established by Arthur Guinness in Dublin in 1759. The firm's brand of rich, dark, somewhat bitter stout acquired a wide following – Dickens in Sketches by Boz (1836) writes of a 'large hamper of Guinness's stout' – and by the 1930s Dublin could not meet the international demand. The first Guinness brewery outside Ireland was opened in 1936 at Park Royal in northwest London.
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The building of the brewery in Britain followed Guinness's launch of its first advertising campaign in 1928. The admirably simple slogan 'Guinness is good for you' was used in various forms until the 1970s, with variants such as 'My Goodness, My Guinness' enabling distinguished cartoonists to depict the glass of dark liquid in a wide range of perilous contexts (including, perhaps most famous of all, half way down the neck of an ostrich). Another brilliant marketing idea, the *Guinness Book of Records, has led to Guinness's publishing branch – a profitable sideline which keeps the brand name on popular reference books in fields such as sport and pop music, where records of achievement require annual updating.
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