Ted Bruning trained as a reporter on local weekly papers before joining the Morning Advertiser, founded in 1794 by the Society of Licensed Victuallers both to promote the trade's interests and to help support indigent licensees. After rising to the position of Associate Editor he turned freelance, writing regularly for publications such as the Publican, the Brewers' Guardian and What's Brewing (the Campaign for Real Ale monthly membership magazine), as well as undertaking one-off assignments such as editing the quarterly The Cider Press. Later he took on the management of the Good Beer Guide and wrote London by Pub, a book of historic pub trails that earned him promotional TV slots on Caprice's Travels and The Thirsty Traveller. He has also written travel features mainly about brewers, distillers, and cider mills in Brittany, Belgium, and Wales for a range of magazines and had a sideline importing bottled beers from Northern France microbreweries. For the last ten years he has been concentrating on books and also, until 2011, driving a beer and cider importer on buying expeditions across Belgium and Northern France. He also works regularly for a licensed trade yearbook, On Trade Preview.