Born in Lancashire and now based in South Oxfordshire, Tony Laithwaite founded the original 'Bordeaux Direct' company (now Laithwaites) in 1969. he has followed his passion for half a century, working in the vineyards of Bordeaux in the 1960s and now co-chairing the UK's biggest wine company with his wife Barbara. This is his first-hand account of how he turned a family business into a wine empire.
Direct is an entertaining, occasionally chippy account of his journey from selling wine from a railway arch in Windsor to owning the biggest online wine retailer in the world. -- Henry Jeffreys * Spectator *