Sarah Kemp

‘My aim was always to create a bridge between producers and the wine lover, our readers; to share this magical world...’

I GREW UP in a small village in west Sussex, a convent girl of a generation where girls weren’t expected to work; my teenage ambition was to marry a handsome Arctic explorer, live in an old rectory, have six children and masses of dogs. I am sure it would have been a perfectly lovely life, but then for my 16th birthday my father gave me the second edition of Hugh Johnson’s Wine Companion.

My father, a journalist who spent most of his time in war zones, loved books. He regularly sold review copies and bought our presents (other review copies) at a small bookshop off Fleet Street. He had no interest in wine, and nor did I – but he bought the Wine Companion for me because it was illustrated by paul Hogarth, one of his favourite artists. I remember looking through the pages and discovering an exotic realm of châteaux and fascinating people. I was hooked.

I have been fortunate to spend 32 years at Decanter and to run the organisation for more than 20, lucky to be in the world I fell in love with as a teenager. people talk about the wine ‘industry’, but it is not that; it is a magical world – full of amazing people and places, with all the drama of a Tolstoy novel. And that’s even before you get to the wine.