Michael Jackson (writer)
Michael Jackson | |
|---|---|
Jackson at the 2004 Helsinki Beer Festival | |
| Born | 27 March 1942 Wetherby, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
| Died | 30 August 2007 (aged 65) London, England |
| Known for | Beer and whisky reviewing and journalism |
| Partner | Paddy Gunningham (1981—2007) |
| Website | Michael Jackson's Beer Hunter Rare Beer Club founderMichael Jackson Collection - Archive at Oxford Brookes University The Michael James Jackson Foundation for Brewing and Distilling - Funding technical education and career advancement for black, indigenous, and people of colour in the brewing and distilling industries |
Michael James Jackson (27 March 1942 – 30 August 2007) was an English writer and journalist. He was the author of many influential books about beer and whisky. He was a regular contributor to a number of broadsheets, particularly The Independent and The Observer.
Jackson's books have sold over three million copies worldwide and have been translated into 18 languages. He is credited with helping to start a renaissance of interest in beer and breweries worldwide in the 1970s, particularly in the United States. He is also widely credited with popularising the idea of beer styles. His influential television series The Beer Hunter was shown in fifteen countries.
He was as well-versed in malt whisky as he was in beer, and his book Michael Jackson's Malt Whisky Companion (1989) was the best-selling book on the subject in the world.
Jackson developed Parkinson's disease a bit more than a decade before his death. He did not declare his illness until its symptoms caused some to think he was inebriated.