Ex-Punch licensees publish book about life in pub trade

Kate McGregor and Linda Tweedie, who used to run six Punch pubs in Edinburgh and East Lothian, offer readers a number of stories from their 25 years experience of life in the pub trade in ‘Life Behind Bars: Confessions of a Pub Landlady’.

Tweedie, who retired from the licensed trade three years ago and is now running a dress shop, explained that the number of pub closures in recent years played a large part in her decision to publish the book.

"It is hard to believe how many pubs are closing every week," said Tweedie. "At least ten have closed in my town over the last two years which is ten too many."

She added: "Pubs have always been big business and it is still a lot of fun. When we started it was easy but licensees don't get much help with anything now.

‘I’ve always had a passion for writing so Kate and I came up with the ‘novel’ idea as our customers use to tell us to write a book about our memorable experiences from our time behind bars.

“We wanted to share our anecdotes with others who I’m sure will recognise the different types of characters, whatever pub they run.

“Also, with many pubs closing we felt that we wanted to share these stories before the Great British pub is lost forever.”

‘Life Behind Bars: Confessions of a Pub Landlady’, published by Fledgling Press, is out now in all major retailers and available in ebook format for Kindle and other devices.