Guinness: A Family Succession

The True Story of the Struggle to Create the World's Largest Brewery

Guinness: A Family Succession tells the dramatic inside story of how the early generations of the Guinness family created the world's largest brewery and most famous stout. 

The head of the Guinness family tells the dramatic true story of how his ancestors created the largest brewery in the world.

Growing up at Farmleigh, the country house outside Dublin, Arthur Edward Guinness – Ned for short – was fascinated by the secrets and legends that surrounded the early generations of his famous family of brewers.

Against the backdrop of epic and convulsive times in Ireland and Britain, he explores the struggles and passions of his ancestors, who went from obscurity in Kildare to the pinnacle of Irish and British society.

Each generation confronted new challenges until the dramatic events when the author’s great-great-grandfather bought out his glamorous older brother and floated Guinness on the stock exchange. Overnight Edward Cecil Guinness became Ireland’s richest man.

This is a tale in which brewing genius, sibling rivalry, bounteous philanthropy and astonishing social mobility are interwoven with historic national events, including the Act of Union, Catholic Emancipation, the Famine, the Home Rule movement, the Dublin Lockout and ultimately Irish independence. It is the inside story, as told by Ned Guinness.

“This book is far more than an account of the commercial success of Guinness; it’s also a love letter to the city which produced it.”

– The Irish Independent

"The definitive history of the Guinness brewing dynasty"

– The Irish Independent

"A fantastic book"

– RTE The Business

UK Delivery:

• Free delivery on all orders of £10 or more.
• £1.49 delivery fee on orders below £10.
• UK orders are shipped via Royal Mail 2nd Class.

International Delivery:

• Flat rate delivery charges vary by country.

Dispatch and Delivery Times:

• All orders are shipped from our warehouse in Northampton, UK within 48 hours of receipt during working hours.
• UK mainland orders typically arrive within 3-5 working days via Royal Mail 2nd Class.
• International estimated delivery times:
• Europe & Channel Islands: 7 to 10 working days
• USA: 7 to 15 working days
• Rest of the World: 9 to 21 working days

View our full delivery infomation here.