I Know This Looks Bad: Errors and Graces in a Louche Life

In this funny and warm-hearted memoir, JPV Oliver, Gent, of Saratoga Springs, NY, recounts academic disaster, dodgy foreign entanglements, preposterous corporate misadventures and delivers a few poignant tributes along the way.

A former speechwriter for Seagram and GE, Oliver tells his story in 365 vignettes creating a vibrant picture of an astonishing life, first as a beer truck driver in 1970s Albany, NY, then in a career that took him around the world for decades.

In one scene, Oliver's delivering kegs of cheap lager to grimy gin mills, next he's on the evening news in New York City, then he's strolling around an 800-year-old Polish salt mine. In one episode, HRH Prince Philip gives him a private tour of Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia.

Buckle up. It's a remarkable ride.

JPV Oliver, Gent, is a recipient of the prestigious 2019 Laphroaig Prize for Literature.

JPV Oliver, Gent, is shown in the library of his family's ancient and sprawling summer retreat, MacGowan Abbey, deep in the Nunavut Territory of Northern Canada. In addition to English and French, Mr Oliver is fluent in the local Inuktitut language, as were generations of his Scots ancestors before him. The library is a puzzle however since he hasn't read a book cover-to-cover since 1992. Mr Oliver is a 2019 recipient of the prestigious Laphroaig Prize for Literature.