One More for the Road

At last - a wine writer who makes us laugh! One More for the Road sounds like a hedonist's odyssey through the best restaurants, wineries and resorts of the world, and in many ways Jeffrey Benson's diarised globetrotting is exactly that - but how entertaining he makes it all!

Here is a handbook for the upmarket traveller - where to go, where to avoid, airlines, upgrades, the best seats, the best hotels, the best massage... and of course the best wines to go with the food on offer. Not that Mr Benson is sniffy about spirits and beer; he gives first rate advice on both (he was Executive Traveller of the Year in 1998).

After a Lucullan repast on the Loire (Au Plaisir Gourmand) the author remarks that all his best meals have been taken on his own - quel dommage! Not even Evelyn Waugh's extravagant descriptions of food in Brideshead Revisited rival this excellent writing, and Mr Benson's witty asides - notably to a teenage Japanese girl in Tokyo - are likewise unforgettable.

Every continent is visited in an apparently hectic schedule of flying/lecturing/training staff/tasting - and in one resort 'nosing'. We are reminded that snake and rat are par for the course in Vietnam, and that a Bangkok 'Sandwich' is not something you have with Branston Pickle. And we share with the author some of the best food and wine on earth.