Britain in a Bottle

Ted Bruning trained as a reporter on local weekly papers before joining the Morning Advertiser, founded in 1794 by the Society of Licensed Victuallers both to promote the trade's interests and to help support indigent licensees. After rising to the position of Associate Editor he turned freelance, writing regularly for publications such as the Publican, the Brewers' Guardian and What's Brewing (the Campaign for Real Ale monthly membership magazine), as well as undertaking one-off assignments such as editing the quarterly The Cider Press. Later he was Editor of What's Brewing and wrote London by Pub, a book of historic pub trails that earned him promotional TV slots on Caprice's Travels and The Thirsty Traveller. He has also written travel features mainly about brewers, distillers, and cider mills in Brittany, Belgium, and Wales for a range of magazines and had a sideline importing bottled beers from Northern France microbreweries. For the last ten years he has been concentrating on books and also, until 2011, driving a beer and cider importer on buying expeditions across Belgium and Northern France. He also works regularly for a licensed trade yearbook, On Trade Preview.
Rupert Wheeler started out working for publishers in the 1970s before becoming self-employed in 1988 undertaking freelance projects for a range of companies including Dorling Kindersley and Cadogan Guides. Since 2002 his company, Posthouse Publishing, has been publishing under its own imprint as well as continuing to produce books for other publishers, including A Return to Real Cooking, The Microbrewers' Handbook by Ted Bruning, The Wine Producers' Handbook, The Craft Distillers' Handbook by Ted Bruning and, more recently, The Bar Owners' Handbook and The Sustainable Smallholders' Handbook. Between 2014 and 2017 he was Managing Editor of Whisky Magazine, a role which involved commission all features, participating as a judge in World Whiskies Awards 2014-Present, and visiting distilleries in Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland (as well as USA and India). In 2017 he decided on a whim to move to Orkney and now works part time at Highland Park distillery as a tour guide as well as taking tasting events for VIP tours. He continues to run Posthouse Publishing.