This is a personal tale, probably based on fact but with a great deal of fantasy, about the trials and tribulations of stopping smoking. The facts about the cigarette 'drug' are plentiful but so too is the fantasy which takes the form of reincarnated Humphrey Bogart. This ghost is also attempting to quite cigarettes. Humphrey Bogart together with the author take this Tobacco Odyssey - to stop smoking - or not, as the case may be.
Click here to see the rest of this review...
The review of this Book prepared by Pavels Rukcenko
My book takes an extended tour around smoking and stopping smoking - and it does so down at the Pied Bull which serves an extraordinary ale called ‘Speed of Light'. It's important to know that after four pints of Speed of Light; time can slow down, speed up or shift and sometimes it can do all three at once.
The review of this Book prepared by David Hammerton
This is a humorous and fantastic novel about a quest to stop smoking in the company of that icon for smoking - Humphrey Bogart. I should know, I wrote it!
The review of this Book prepared by David Hammerton
This book traces a person's efforts to quit smoking.
The review of this Book prepared by Lucy Westmorland
This book reviews very thoroughly and intelligently all aspects of the tobacco debate and wraps this around a personal journey to stop smoking, all in the fantastic compnay of Humphrey Bogart. It's very informative and also a fine read.
The review of this Book prepared by Lucy Cavendish
Take an extended and entertaining tour around smoking and stopping smoking – and do it with Humphrey Bogart down at the Pied Bull.
Meet Bogie - the icon, the defiant individualist and the smoker supreme as he becomes the author's reluctant stop-smoking buddy. Listen to Bogie provide withering put-downs of the anti-smoking brigade and of psychoanalytic assessments of smoking. Also hear Bogie lamenting the poor film roles he's getting and learn of possible new ventures. Options include a portrayal of James Buchanan Duke, the tobacco baron, and a more distant costume drama where Bogie plays Samuel Coleridge – a heavy user of tobacco as well as laudanum.
Read the smoking facts. Read about smoking in history and in contemporary culture. The pro-smoking case includes the idea that smoking represents individualism and civility – sadly lacking in the third millennium. Catch up on the smoke rings. Did you know that Margaret Thatcher took a tolerant line on tobacco but also, that until recently, she was on the Board of Philip Morris with a handsome retainer? You should know about the Formula One/tobacco sponsorship/political donations/New Labour fiasco and this is also covered. As for the US, there's a look at the crusade against Bill Clinton and his strange use of cigars, with the tobacco lobby lurking in the darkness.
Read all this through the haze of too much Speed of Light down at the Pied Bull. Find out what happens as the author gives up the fags but Bogie doesn't. See a stunning blonde woman propping up the door jamb. She wears a tailored, tightly waisted check suit and heels. Meet Lauren Bacall. She could drawl ''Anybody got a match?' and then light up elegantly, smoke slipping from her lips and coiling up to the ceiling. But she doesn't. Hear Lauren Bacall close the story.
Perhaps give up smoking.
The review of this Book prepared by David Hammerton
