Drink: The long-life cocktail

Although the sample may seem unscientific, I have established a link between dry martinis and longevity. There was a wonderful old fellow called Roland Shaw, who lived to be nearer 90 than 80, and lived is the word. Even given the age of the vehicle, the mileage was prodigious. More than six-and-a-half feet tall, like a piece of Stonehenge with legs, Roland had lapidary features and a basso profundo voice. He would have made an excellent Commendatore, except that he would have won the sword fight. Roland was not only an oil man; he was the Nestor of the oil business, there when the first donkey nodded. He had a damn good war as a US Navy pilot — and he mixed a damn good martini.

‘Dry martinis are like women’s breasts,’ he would say. ‘One is too few. Three are too many. Two: just right.’ We would have a couple and go off to lunch at Buck’s, with no risk of eating on an empty stomach.