Pimms

The Harbour Bar was full of Royal Navy officers with debby girls. The debbiest took McKinley and me sailing, and afterwards we drank tankards of Pimms in the Yacht Club.

Sonya had ordered a Pimms; she had actually called it a ‘Pimm’, and had to be corrected by the young waiter. Marie remembered Sonya’s Pimms as a rather complicated drink which came with slices of orange and cucumber, a maraschino cherry, and a plastic stick for stirring.

Drinks were regularly sold short – particularly Pimms, which could be served ready-mixed and was one of the few jobs of work Albert insisted on doing himself. […] The pub sold a lot of Pimms: it was in the sleazy shadow of Fulham where the criminals liked to pretend to be flash and the Sloanes pretended to be low-life. They combined well and the evenings were riots of exchanged gambling information, Pimms, pool and vodka doubles.