One of the first women to write about wine, she was known for her prickly putdowns and forthright views about food and drinkPamela Vandyke Price, who has died aged 90, was the first woman in Britain to write seriously about wine and spirits. Writing about drinking – its tastes, smells, intoxication, history and innumerable scraps of lore and myth – had been the preserve of a variety of old buffers, long on purple prose, short on precision. Vandyke Price arrived on the scene just as mass wine consumption began in Britain. People had a taste for drink and needed fast, often peremptory, instruction. She provided it. She became a wine correspondent of the Times newspaper, closely followed by many readers, and wrote books on the subject.She was born Pamela Walford in Coventry, daughter of a clockmaker and his wife, a part-French woman with a firm vision of her middle-class station. Pamela was privately educated and went on to study English at Somerville College, Oxford, being taught by both CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien.Her life was peppered by a long list of dislikes and prohibitions: no perfume or talking in the tasting-room, no bought sandwiches, and above all, no bad manners. When she was making plans for her own funeral, there was a list of people not to be invited.Her mother encouraged her to think of the stage as a career and she trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, London, in the postwar years. She never actually trod the boards, though the apprenticeship bore... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-02-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 15/06/2011 - 14:03 Random House author Katie Price is to attempt to break the Guinness World Records title for the largest book signing by a single author. Price's attempt will take place at the O2 Academy, Leeds, at 11 a.m. on 27th July,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Fri, 10/06/2011 - 08:30 Penguin has defended the £30 r.r.p. price of Jamie Oliver's new cookbook as "fantastic value" after retailers accused the company of "profiteering". Many booksellers have noted the price of potential bestselling hardback books... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A pricing war among the big guns of the book industry is causing pain at the checkout screen, but sprouting new opportunities for writers and readers. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2011-05-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Barbara Casassus Publication Date: Wed, 18/05/2011 - 14:45 The French National Assembly yesterday (17th May) voted into law a bill allowing publishers to fix prices of all ebooks sold in France. The text says that retailers inside or outside France must respect the fixed prices.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Fri, 13/05/2011 - 15:40 Publishers are remaining tight-lipped about recent price increases in books for children and teenagers. Price increases have seen some young adult titles being priced at £18, with some paperback fiction given an £8.99 price... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Barbara Casassus Publication Date: Thu, 05/05/2011 - 09:14 France is bracing for battle with the European Commission with its government on the verge of adopting a bill allowing publishers to fix prices for all ebooks sold in France. The bill, which was approved unanimously by an... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Anja Sieg Publication Date: Thu, 21/04/2011 - 13:53 More than three years after it was introduced in North America and eight months after the UK become the first country outside of the US to get a dedicated Kindle store, Germany has followed suit. The German Kindle store was... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Barbara Casassus Publication Date: Tue, 29/03/2011 - 15:29 French culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand has called for the European Union to regulate ebook prices as soon as possible, and to introduce a reduced rate of VAT on all cultural goods and services, whether they are sold... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Simplifying (and clarifying) the purchasing processregardless of newsstand--and finding new ways to effectively market among the crush of new apps being launched is critical for publishers to succeed, according to speakers at MPAs Digital E-Reading conference today. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-03-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Thu, 03/03/2011 - 08:45 Half of all book buyers expect to pay less for ebooks, according to new research by Mintel, but those book readers who already own ebook devices have marginally more realistic expectations over price, suggesting that the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams The Office of Fair Trading has announced an enquiry into the ebook agency model, following what it described as a "significant number of complaints". The OFT said the investigation is "into whether arrangements that certain publishers have put in place with some... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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