Changes

Teddy Everett, head of Everett and Sons Coffee is dying, slowly and painfully, of cancer. The Coffee Story is his story, told in his own (very descriptive) words. It goes from (although not necessarily in this order) his childhood in England, his adolescence in Ethiopia and then his life in the USA and Cuba. It's his time in Cuba which has put him where he is now – in prison. For his crimes he would normally have suffered the death penalty, but his sentence was commuted because of his illness and now the doctors try to save him. Or perhaps it's that they're trying to persuade Teddy that they're trying to save him – whether he wants to be saved or not.

I came to this book in a rather unusual way. I met Peter Salmon at a lunch for authors and bloggers. He was great company and I can't remember when I last laughed quite so much. I didn't need to make a note of the title of the book: I knew I would remember it and I knew I wanted to read it. I'm long past the stage of judging books by their covers, but over the last few days I've realised that I'm not beyond pre-judging a book by its author. Having met Pete this book is not at all what I expected! I was thinking in terms of a thought-provoking story of the life of a man who had always been involved with coffee. I was not expecting a total assault on the senses and the vivid depiction of anger. I was stunned.