Product Description

If you're wondering what Chris Stewart did before he and Ana moved to El Valero, their Spanish farm, here's one of the answers. He took to the sea, landing a job as skipper for the summer, sailing a Cornish Crabber around the Greek islands. It was his dream job - and there was just one tiny problem. He hadn't ever sailed before and had not the foggiest how to start. In a series of madcap and hilarious adventures we follow Chris from a shaky start in Chichester harbour to his epic Odyssey to Spetses (a bucket would have been handy), and then on to the journey of a lifetime - battening down the hatches on a trip across the North Atlantic. It's a journey crackling with Chris' zest for life, irresistible humour, and unerring lack of foresight. Dry land never looked more welcoming.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #177716 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Review
"'A charming and lyrical read, awash with the joy of discovery...' Rory Maclean, Guardian 'It is easy to enthuse about the simple pleasures of life, but hard to write about them well. Stewart's gift is to do so with the carefree manner of someone you've just met in a bar, and who is buying the drinks' Hugh Thomson, Independent 'Witty, self-deprecating and charming, Stewart makes wonderful company even if you do get soaked in the process.' Kathleen Wyatt, The Times 'His enthusiasm and sheer good nature are infectious. Like Bill Bryson, he's a hard man to dislike.' Mail on Sunday 'Laugh yourself silly! Wonderful!' Books Quarterly It's a book with a big heart and a great belly laugh' The Times"

About the Author
Chris Stewart shot to fame with Driving Over Lemons (9780956003805) - Sort Of Books' launch title in 1999. Funny, insightful and real, the book told the story of how he bought a peasant farm on the wrong side of the river, with its previous owner still resident. It became an international bestseller and with its sequels - A Parrot in the Pepper Tree and The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society - it has sold more than a million copies in the UK alone. Chris prepared for life on his Spanish mountain farm with jobs of doubtful relevance. He was the original drummer in Genesis (he played on the first album), then joined a circus, learnt how to shear sheep, went to China to write the Rough Guide, gained a pilot's license in Los Angeles, and completed a course in French cooking. Three Ways to Capsize a Boat fills in his lost years as a yacht skipper in the Greek islands. Despite the extraordinary success of his books, Chris, his wife Ana, and their daughter Chloe, continue to live on their farm, with their numerous dogs, cats, chickens, sheep and misanthropic parrot.

Customer Reviews

Just OK
As usual due to the vagaries of the publishing world, this title has been available in the UK and amazon.co.uk have several reviews already posted.

In sum, a very short book about a couple of sailing trips. Enjoyable, but not worth buying a book for this, more suitable perhaps for the Sunday Times travel supplement.

Although there's quite a lot of enjoyable sailing stuff here, he doesn't give the length of the boat, which makes it difficult to imagine what it must have been like.