Green’s Dictionary of Slang

pleasure, enjoyment, hedonism; also as negative, i.e. not all… .

1855		T. Haliburton Nature and Human Nature I 60: My experience, Tom, is, that this life ain’t all beer and skittles.
1868		G.J. Whyte-Melville White Rose 225: It’s not all beer and skittles managing a theatre.
1877		Sheffield Dly Teleg. 14 June 2/3: Truly, as we said at the start, ’Life is not all beer and skittles’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Apr. 12/1: ‘A Literary work is not all beer and skittles, I tell you,’ said one of Alfred’s Addisons. ‘No, not all beer,’ was the thoughtful reply.
1894		G. du Maurier Trilby 24: Life ain’t all beer and skittles, and more’s the pity.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 2 Sept. 4/6: Life is not all beer and skittles in Paradise.
1900		Punch 4 Apr. 236/3: ’Twas not all beer and skittles, sure, / Even at that uncertain date / When beer was pure.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 16 Aug. 12/2: Camped in an out-of-the-way hole like the Alexandra Palace – their officers are wise enough to flee it like an orderly bin – not extravagantly fed nor entertained, their coronating is by no means all sheoak and quoits.
1908		G. Seagram Bushman All 94: ’Twouldn’t be all skittles and beer, Pat, if we woke some night to find spears sticking into us.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Oct. 43/1: For all that Jerry’s life was not all beer and skittles.
1925		Black Mask Aug. III 71: I see things wasn’t all beer and skittles with Mart.
1933		E. Mordaunt Mrs. Van Kleek (1949) 34: Youth was the happiest time of one’s life, all beer and skittles, rosebuds and lollies.
1939		J. Campbell Babe is Wise 312: My married life hasn’t been all stout an’ oysters, let me tell you!
1942		A. Christie Body in the Library (1959) 133: It wouldn’t be all beer and skittles [...] it would be damned hard work.
1944		J.S. Pennell Hist. of Rome Hanks 20: Alma was beer and bleeding skittles to this.
1957		J.M. Hosking ‘Bachelor’ Aus. First and Last 68: A single man’s life is merry and bright, but not all beer and skittles.
1981		G. Young Slow Boats to China (1983) 347: It wasn’t all beer and skittles being a planter in Malaya, you know.
1987		J. Ciardi Good Words 32: Beer and skittles [...] The easy life.
2001		E. Gibbons [title] All Beer and Skittles?: A Short History of Inns and Taverns.