I am too often asked to write forewords, introductions or prefaces for wine books, and am even more often sent half a forest full of unwieldy proofs of an unpublished book by a publisher or sometimes author asking me to provide a nice, juicy, bite-size quote for the books jacket in advance of publication.
Partly to give myself enough time to get on with my own writing (because reading these proofs can be extremely time-consuming), partly because I never do this myself, and partly to save myself the embarrassment of ever having to refuse on the grounds of quality, I...