Wine Girl: A sommelier's tale of making it in the toxic world of fine dining

Hugely entertaining' Jay Rayner, Observer

'Addictive' Stylist

'James does for wine what Anthony Bourdain did for the high-pressure, low-margin world of professional restaurants, exposing secrets kept from customers' Financial Times

'James writes powerfully . . . you'll raise a glass to her extraordinary resilience' Sunday Times

Aged thirteen, Victoria James started her first job in a diner in New Jersey.

Aged nineteen, Victoria was serving sugary Cosmopolitans in a restaurant off Broadway.

Aged twenty-one, Victoria was named the US's youngest sommelier, working in Michelin-starred restaurants, serving the finest wines.

The groping patrons she learned to handle, but, behind the scenes, the world of high-end dining was a mess of fractious relationships and unacknowledged abuse. It would take hitting rock-bottom for Victoria to find her way back to the industry she adores.

Wine Girl is the memoir of a young woman breaking free from her traumatic childhood. It's the story of overcoming a notoriously misogynistic business, and of the restorative power of a glass of wine with friends.

'For anyone interested in food, or the dark underbelly and exhilarating fizz of restaurant life . . . a page-turning read' inews

'An uplifting story of grit and resilience that will leave you with an appetite for the pleasures that James so vividly describes' Mail on Sunday