Well, we authors have finally seen what our finished book Wine Grapes, on the 1,368 grape varieties we could find that make wine commercially, looks like. As you can see from the latest picture of it on the left, it's massive!
It is also extremely heavy – over 3 kilos or 7 lb – so is taking some time to be manoeuvred into distribution on both sides of the Atlantic, and will presumably take even longer to find its way to places such as Australia, South Africa and continental Europe.
I am told there is no such thing as an official publication date any longer. 
Booksellers just start selling books as soon as they are delivered. But in principle the book comes out in the second half of October, from Allen Lane (Penguin's most upmarket non-fiction imprint) in the UK and Ecco (part of Harper Collins) in the US. Each publisher has chosen a different cover and slipcase. The UK version is on the left and the US version is on the right. But the contents are identical – all 1,200 pages.
What's new is that the first 36 pages have just been published online so that you can now get a preview of what's in the book and what it looks like here.
And, as ever, you can find out more, pre-order the book (no money is taken until it is despatched), and communicate with me and my co-authors Julia Harding and José Vouillamoz at Wine Grapes.
Purple Pagers may also care to read this thread about the book in our forum.
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