The author, responsible for marketing of the Famous Grouse for fifteen years, has been in a unique position to record the decline of the malt distillery and also to look at the remaining distilleries and explain why they survive today. The story is one of politics, taxation, social history, location, supply and demand and sheer perseverance on the part of some. Illustrated with around 175 colour illustrations of distilleries old and new, and of the processes involved in the manufacture of Scotland's biggest single export.