'I've lived in Fife for 20 years - from zero to the age of nine and for the past 11 years - and I've been going to the Albert Hotel since I was a nipper. It's perched on the rocks in a village called North Queensferry on the south coast of Fife. From the window there are wonderful views of the Forth Bridge, which looms right outside. They used to have a beer garden but unfortunately it's been sold off now and turned into architecturally interesting, but beer-garden-filling, retro houses.

Nowadays I'm usually there once a week as it's only five minutes walk down the hill from our house. They do perfectly respectable pub food (fabulous chips), but you don't visit the Albert for Cordon Bleu cooking. I usually go for a pint of McEwan's 80/-. When I say a pint, I always go with the intention of having just one pint, but it rarely works out that way. They also have a good range of whiskies. I've spent a good deal of time here in my life unintentionally doing research for the whisky book that I've just written.

When a publisher approached me to write a book about whisky and told me that I would be allowed to drive around Scotland and visit distilleries, I kicked myself that I hadn't thought of it, and sooner. I got the best of both worlds: I got to drive (I'm a bit of a petrol head), and I got to drink - but not at the same time. The idea was to do an idiosyncratic journal which would be partly a travel book for Scotland, partly about driving and partly about me and my pals. I raged and fumed against the Iraq war and Blair and Bush - I couldn't ignore that any more than I could ignore the landscape or weather or anything else. Whisky, however, was my focus.

You tend to get very drunk drinking whisky. Basically, it's stuff to get drunk with; that is really what alcohol is for. There's really no point drinking it otherwise. But I do like a good single malt. Just like it's more pleasant to get drunk drinking good wine, it's more pleasant to get drunk drinking good whisky. My usual tipple is Laphroaig, an Islay whisky.

I developed my taste for drink quite late. I was the only person I know who didn't start going to pubs until I was legally able to do so. I think it was to do with being an only child, as I was used to my own company and I wasn't very gregarious. I spent my teens with my mum and dad, just sitting in my room, making up stories, and listening to music. As a child I was given sips of whisky at Hogmanay and, of course, thought it was horribly nasty burny stuff and wondered why anyone would drink it in preference to something nice like lemonade and Irn-Bru. Tastes change, though, and by adolescence I was a fully-fledged whisky drinker. I'm convinced I didn't choose whisky. It chose me.

Since then I've done extensive and very selfless research into simultaneous drinking and writing, and I've come to realise that, for me, the two don't mix (I've tried drugs but they don't work either). I'd love to be able to support the 'great literary drunk' cause, led by F. Scott Fitzgerald and the like, but it's not me somehow. The only novel that was written under the influence of alcohol, namely whisky, was Canal Dreams and probably the book that I'm least pleased with.

When it comes to eating, sometimes I like to slum it. A bit like some people enjoy rough sex - allegedly - now and again I go for rough food. A chicken curry and chips on the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry is terribly unhealthy, I'm sure, but it's great. I have it about twice a year on the way to our holiday in Barra. I'm afraid I always take my own Heinz ketchup for the chips. I'm not a great cook but like a lot of men I can do a steak and I can follow a recipe. My wife is the cook in the family. She's always trying to get me to eat sensible stuff. We tend to oscillate between fruit salad with lots of pumpkin seeds and bacon butties.

I'm relatively sensible at home - we don't have a deep-fat fryer - and that leaves more calories for curries. We go to Edinburgh for those - quality ones. They do occasionally have curries at the Albert, which are nothing like as inauthentic as the Caledonian ferry curries, but really it is a place where I drink and meet my dad and my uncle Bob. We catch up and reminisce over a pint, or a whisky or two.'

· To order a copy of Raw Spirit by Iain Banks (Century, rrp £17.99) for £15.99 plus p&p, call the Observer book service on 0870 066 7989

The Albert Hotel 25 Main Street North Queensferry Inverkeithing Fife KY11 1JG Tel: 01383 413562

History
The Albert Hotel was opened in 1824 as the Mitchell Inn. However, after a fleeting visit from Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1842, it was decided that the hotel should be renamed after the Prince.

The Albert is the only village pub in North Queensferry and is located on the banks of the Firth of Forth, boasting magnificent views of the bridge. The restaurant serves fresh, home-made food.

Popular dishes

Starter:
Cullen skink (smoked haddock soup), £2.25
Mains:
Fillet of haddock, £6.25
Steak and Guinness pie, £5.95
Dessert:
Caramel apple, £2.35
High tea (served from 4pm):
Main course, including toast and tea, followed by scones, jam and cakes, £7.50 approx

Famous customers

'Gordon Brown has a house in the village so he pops in for drinks. Tony Blair used to come with Mr Brown but he hasn't been in since Labour has been in power,' says hotel owner Rhona Campbell

Seats: 28 in the restaurant
Open: The restaurant is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 12.30pm to 8.30pm. Bar food is served all week