Monday, October 17, 2016

Whisky not Whiskey - if you're British

So in my John Dunn book, John drinks whiskey with Captain Walmsley, almost like a nightly ritual when the rest of the family had retired for the evening. Except in my research I discovered it's not whiskey. It's whisky. And that's because they're British. At least Captain Walmsley is British. John of course was born and raised in Africa and had never been to Britain. But he is Scottish descent, and the South African colonies in the story are British colonies, so that means the whiskey they're drinking is whisky. And more to the point, it's Scotch Whisky.


Yes, whiskey is made in America. So if this were a story taking place in America or about Americans then, maybe they would be drinking whiskey. But it's not in America, and they're not Americans. Again, it's all taking place in British South African colonies and Zululand, so the whiskey they are drinking is whisky. Scotch whisky.


So I am glad I made that distinction before my John Dunn book was published. I'm no whiskey connoisseur. I'm not much of a drinker at all, actually, so I didn't know about the difference between whiskey and whisky. Fortunately, I continued my research, and when I researched the "whiskey" that British people drank, I learned it was "whisky" made in England or Scotland.



I also learned that bourbon is an American whiskey, and for that very reason it was probably not served in South Africa where the British had established their colonies. So I changed all scenes that had bourbon or "whiskey" to scenes with Scotch whisky. And I made these corrections in time, thank goodness, so that my story, John Dunn; Heart of a Zulu will be more authentic.


Btw, brandy is okay. The British did drink Brandy. Brandy and Scotch whisky. So I sent the new file last night, and hopefully, I won't be finding any more errors. But if I do, I'll fix them. Just want to make sure I fix them in time. Stay tuned. John Dunn, Heart of a Zulu is coming soon!

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