beer and skittles

• skittles and beer

Found as early as 1837, in Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, where it appears in the form, “It’s a reg’lar holiday to them—all porter and skittles”. The most common form, as a negative admonition, appears to have been popularized by Thomas Hughes in Tom Brown's School Days (1857, see quotation below).

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beer and skittles pl (plural only)

1. (chiefly UK, idiomatic) Fun times; pleasure and leisure.

   Synonyms: peaches and cream, bed of roses, bowl of cherries, sunshine and rainbows; see also Thesaurus:pleasure

   • 1857, Thomas Hughes, chapter 2, in Tom Brown's School Days:

     Well, well, we must bide our time. Life isn't all beer and skittles—but beer and skittles, or something better of the same sort, must form a good part of every Englishman's education.

   • 1911, Anthony Hope, chapter 22, in Mrs. Maxon Protests, page 259:

     Being a soldier's wife isn't all beer and skittles.

   • 2012 March 24, John Walsh, “The perils of reviewing restaurants”, in The Independent‎:

     His plight reveals a truth that's often obscured by the envy of newspaper readers; that it's not all beer and skittles in restaurant-critic land.

   • 2022 October 5, Nick Brodrick, “Pendolinos: a huge role to play”, in RAIL, number 967, page 41:

     Such highly intensive deployment left little wriggle room, something with which Dunster is all too familiar. "It hasn't all been beer and skittles," he says dryly.

• Often used in the negative, "not all beer and skittles".

• life is not all beer and skittles

• skittles and beer