Throughout the 20th century Guinness was keen to put across the idea that drinking Guinness was a healthful thing to do: remember "Guinness is good for you". As a part of that there was a concerted effort to build relationships with the medical profession and for a while in the 1930s and then again in the 1950s and 60s Guinness's advertising agency sent out fun, illustrated booklets to Doctors as Christmas greetings. They usually contained humorous verse, often parodies, which sometimes very cleverly introduced Guinness into well known poems and lyrics. Of a small group of these which I acquired recently, this one, illustrated by Rowland Emmett is by far the wackiest and most eye-catching. Others include parodies on such things as Alice in Wonderland and Gilbert and Sullivan.
