Essential toilet reading for any wine lover, A Wine Miscellany, by Graham Harding, is an eclectic selection of unrelated wine orientated facts. Very easing reading, it’s the kind of book you can pick up and start where you left off a month ago, but at the same time it’s very addictive - as I found last night, sitting up to 1am after not being able to get enough of the funny and surprising things I didn’t know about wine.

Here’s how the back reads:

• A complete listing of all wines enjoyed by James Bond in Ian Fleming’s novels
• The stories behind such labels as ‘Cat’s Pee on a Gooseberry Bush’ and ‘Fat Bastard’
• How and why two glasses of wine a day (but no more) are good for you
• A tasting note on the world’s oldest wine
• Wine and the reality-TV show Big Brother
• The connection between Luke Skywalker, Francis Ford Coppola and a ranch-bottled wine names Viandante del Cielo

Anyone intrigued or enchanted by wine and its varied delights will find A Wine Miscellany the perfect accompaniment. Refreshingly light on the palate, it’s neither pompous nor patronising but something else altogether - a fascinating and joyful jaunt through the world of vineyards, vinification, and of glorious wine itself.

Arranged and compiled as a true miscellany should be, with a deft sprinkling of fact and comment, observation and insight, A Wine Miscellany is a perfect gift for the wine connoisseur, and, for the newcomer to wine, an entertaining and informative introduction to the charm and marvel of the grape. I’d score this a 100 points.