Following the resurgence in popularity of Guinness in recent years, making it now the bestselling beer in the UK, Scala, an imprint of Batsford, is delighted to announce the release of three insider’s guides to the Guinness brand and family. Publishing in 2025, the books coincide with Netflix announcing Succession meets Peaky Blinders family drama House of Guinness.
In World of Guinness, Rory Guinness deftly writes and illustrates the story behind the development of the world-famous brewery and his family’s involvement in its creation. Officially backed by Diageo, the owners of the Guinness trademark, and produced in association with the Guinness Storehouse, Ireland’s most popular attraction housed at the old Guinness brewery, the book is beautifully illustrated with historic photographs and charming old advertisements.
Guinness: A family succession 1725–1886 is a narrative non-fiction book written by Arthur Edward Guinness, the 4th Earl of Iveagh and head of the Guinness family. He draws on family letters, archives and photographs to tell, for the first time, the real story of how four generations of Guinnesses, starting from humble origins in Ireland, created the largest brewery in the world. He explores the contrasting personalities of his forebears and the story of the Guinness family succession in the Victorian era, and explains how they made a difference in Ireland, Britain and beyond. This is the inside story of one of the great families of Ireland and Britain in its formative eras – a generational saga encompassing family drama, business innovation, public works and charitable endeavours.
In The Houses of Guinness, Adrian Tinniswood, OBE FSA, explores the history of the Guinnesses through their mansions and town houses. From the Irish magnificence of Farmleigh (said to have its ballroom floor made from beer barrels) to Robert Adam’s Kenwood on Hampstead Heath, which Lord Iveagh saved from destruction and bequeathed to the British Nation, the Guinnesses have left an enduring legacy of outstanding architectural significance. Tinniswood is a chronicler of the country houses of the UK and Ireland, having published 19 books on the subject. His book The Long Weekend was both a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller.
These exciting new books coincide with the release of upcoming Netflix series House of Guinness, which will sweep into households around the world in winter 2025/2026. With a screenplay written by Steven Knight, creator of Peaky Blinders, and starring James Norton and Dervla Kirwan, the series will bring the Guinness family to the foreground.
Polly Powell, Publisher and Owner of Scala and Batsford said:
‘With the advent of this major new series, it is important that the family – who know more than most about the extraordinary legacy of their forebears – tell the story of the Guinness dynasty. Meanwhile, no-one can better Adrian Tinniswood’s chronicling of the country house, and I look forward with relish to his telling of the Guinness story through their extraordinary houses and homes.’
Book 1 World of Guinness by Rory Guinness will publish by Scala on 27 February 2025 | £12.95 online and via the Guinness Storehouse.
Book 2 Guinness:A Family Succession 1725 — 1886 by Arthur Guinness will publish by Scala on 20 September 2025 | £25 available online and in all good bookshops.
Book 3 The Houses of Guinness by Adrian Tinniswood will publish by Scala on 5 March 2026 | £30.00 available online and in all good bookshops.
