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Sort of Books is bringing out a new Chris Stewart memoir and reissuing his backlist to mark the 10th anniversary of his début hit, Driving Over Lemons.
Three Ways to Capsize a Boat: An Optimist Afloat (June, p/b, £9.99) will be Stewart’s tale of a summer spent as skipper of a British boat sailing round the Greek islands, in the days before he moved to the Andalucian farm described in Driving Over Lemons and its sequels. Stewart "hadn’t ever sailed before and had not the foggiest how to start", said the publisher, making the subsequent journey from Chichester to Spetses full of comic misadventure.
Sort of Books is promising "major" publicity for the title, which it said sees Stewart "funnier than ever". There will also be an author tour, and reader competitions including trips to visit Stewart on his Spanish farm. Meanwhile Driving Over Lemons, A Parrot in the Pepper Tree and The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society are all being reissued in June with freshly designed covers and an extra author interview on DVD.
Nielsen BookScan recorded sales of more than 730,000 for Stewart’s books. Driving Over Lemons became a summer bestseller via word-of-mouth, helped by publicity surrounding Stewart’s earlier career as drummer with the band Genesis.