“Drinking is very important at Downton Abbey. At least three types of wine are served at every upstairs dinner, plus port for the gentlemen after it. There’s alcoholic punch at parties, plenty of Champagne, and, as the years go by, the gradual adoption of the cocktail.”
And so, begins the introduction to The Official Downton Abbey Cocktail Book by food historian Annie Gray. Continuing, she goes on to describe the mention of American-style cocktails in season two, which takes four more seasons before we see the very proper British butler Mr. Carson reluctantly serving them to the Crawley family and their guests at a pre-dinner gathering. A cocktail party? Are the shades of Downton to be thus polluted? The Dowager Countess of Grantham is shocked. We are amused.
It is her granddaughter Lady Edith who embraces the consumption of alcohol in the series. Living a modern life after being jilted at the altar by Sir Anthony Strallan, and then alone after her lover Michael Gregson moved to Germany in order to renounce his British citizenship so he could divorce his mentally ill wife and marry her. That was the plan until he was murdered. Out of all the main characters in the series, Edith deserved a drink. Continue reading “A Preview of The Official Downton Abbey Cocktail Book: Appropriate Libations for All Occasions, by Annie Gray, and Foreword by Julian Fellowes” →
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