Has a novelist ever invented a new cocktail in a story?

QUESTION: Has a novelist ever invented a new cocktail in a story?

The most famous example has to be the Vesper martini. In Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale, James Bond orders a dry martini in a ‘deep champagne goblet’ but then changes his order and offers the barman his own recipe: ‘Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. 

Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it? ... This drink’s my own invention. I’m going to patent it when I think of a good name.’

He later names it after his lover Vesper Lynd. The name Vesper had its origins in Fleming’s work as a Second World War intelligence officer. Fleming met and worked – and possibly had an affair – with Christine Granville, a spy who was also known as Vesperale.

Another literary cocktail is Douglas Adams’s Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster from The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.

It’s described as ‘like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick’. Unfortunately, Adams has stated that ‘there are a number of environmental and weapons treaties and laws of physics’ which prevent the drink from being mixed on Earth.

Ian Brown, Stafford

QUESTION: Was London ever a Hanseatic city?

Tomorrow's questions: 

Q: Where did the term ‘think tank’ come from?

Mike Richards, Larbert, Stirlingshire

Q: Is the Cueva de las Manos in Argentina fake?

Jasmine Mercer, Woodhall Spa, Lincs

Q: What is the story of the disputed Republic of Abkhazia which borders Georgia?

Lesley Smith, Amersham, Bucks

Further to the earlier answer, London’s Steelyard, the city’s Hanseatic base, was not named after metal but referred instead to weighing goods on stilyards, a balance arm form of scales.

Paul Watkin, Bungay, Suffolk

QUESTION: Why is one of Louise’s albums called Elbow Beach? There isn’t a track on it of that name.

Elbow Beach is one of the most popular beaches in Bermuda. Louise Nurding married footballer Jamie Redknapp there in June 1998 and released her album of that name in 2000.

Elbow Beach is famous for its pink sand, turquoise waters and scenic beauty. It’s probably called Elbow Beach for its gentle curve although Richard Norwood’s survey of 1613-19 refers to ‘Elbow Bay’, as do early maps.

In the early 1900s when Richard Berry Johnson established the South Shore Hotel he called it Elba Beach. However, Harold Hayes Frith renamed it Elbow Beach Hotel when he bought the property during the First World War.

Harry Crofts, London N12