Michael Jackson (writer)

Michael James Jackson (27 March 1942 – 30 August 2007) was an English beer and whiskey writer. 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.