Perfect for any wine library of the book kind…
A favorite line: p. 182: “These days everyone knows about biodynamics, of course. Every fashionable young winemaker worth his marketing budget is skipping around a vineyard somewhere saying prayers under the full moon and spraying cocktails of armpit sweat and chamomile over the vines. But back in the 1990s this was the sole preserve of environmental fruit-loops and deranged German spiritualists.”
Corkscrew ~ The highly improbable, but occasionally true, tale of a professional wine buyer
I’m glad I lived long enough to read this one… This is the funniest book I’ve ever, ever laugh-out-loud read. I thought I was telling tales when I wrote Road Warrior Survival Guide… Doesn’t even hold a candle to what I just finished reading. Corkscrew, The highly improbably, but occasionally true, tale of a professional wine buyer. I can promise you, you don’t know anyone who’s more funny… Entertaining to the Nth degree, really jolly. If there’s a glass ceiling for how much you can laugh while reading a book, Peter Stafford-Bow has broken it.
You can’t anticipate any of it, your eyes will bug out of your head as you read it. You’ll wonder, how will he get himself out of this one? You’ve just got to read it to understand that I’m not joshing you. This book is hysterical, as he nails his characters with great depth of understanding and humor.
As I was reading the book, I went over something in my mind of something I recently thought… The line, “The names have been changed to protect the innocent.” Really… Names are always changed to protect the author from the guilty party’s lawsuits. And, there are some pretty intriguing characters within this story that I’d want to protect myself from, too. I remember walking into a wholesaler’s warehouse once, whose walls were “six feet thick,” they declared. It took me about a half hour to first find the place, as I went around and around a block, not even seeing the warehouse… It was right there, but I couldn’t see it. Someone had to come outside and guide me in. Yeah… like that.
About The Author
This is Peter Stafford-Bow’s first novel, and if this is his first, I’m first in line for his next. Writing and publishing a book is so much more than thinking it, writing it, and viola! It does take a lot of time. I’ll be patient, sorta.
Peter has had decades of experience in international wine trade, and he’s worked for some of the largest retailers in the world. He’s been to every major wine region, and tasted wines that most of us don’t even yet know exist. He’s writing under an assumed name to avoid anyone realizing that they might be a character of interest.
This one review I really like and sums it up really well:
John Staughton, Self-Publishing Review
October 3, 2016
INTRODUCING… FELIX HART
“Boasting casual storytelling mastery and the sharp-tongued wit of Tom Robbins, Peter Stafford-Bow presents an incredibly amusing and unpredictable tale. For wine lovers or those who simply love a great story, this is a mad ramble through the tangled world of wine, taking readers across two continents and countless adventures of one exceptional character, Felix Hart. Corkscrew is a strange cross between a thriller and a farce, but Stafford-Bow pulls it off with panache – and a self-aware smirk on his face.” ★★★★½
Trackbacks/Pingbacks