Bob's Blog: Give it Air
OPINION: “Have a look at this” said a good friend as he passed me a cutout from The Times with the heading “The wine gadget sommeliers say can make your £10 bottle taste better”.
I react well to praise of course but even the harshest criticism is welcome; once I have cleared up the broken glass and apologised for my language to anyone within earshot, I take on board constructive criticism and try to do better.
I wrote a magazine wine column for several years without getting any response from a single reader. I started to imagine that no one read my column apart from my greatest critic (my wife, Marion). It was like shouting into a vacuum.
When it got to much for me and I gave up the column, 35 readers wrote to me to say how much they enjoyed my scribbles. Several had kept every single column I'd written. I was deeply touched by the response.
No praise is worse than false praise. I am occasionally introduced to a wine enthusiast at a party who will gush, “Bob Campbell, great to meet you; I love your work; never buy a wine without checking your tasting notes; I’ve got every book you have written.” I am then forced to admit, “I have never written a book, you must be thinking of Michael Cooper”.
