A meticulous observer with an acerbic wit, Stephen Brook is well known as a wine enthusiast, a restaurant critic, an editor, and a travel writer. Writing in an entertaining yet informative style, he synthesizes his own identity with the landscape and architecture around him, sampling and critiquing food and culture. Brook writes with humor and compassion while keeping a trenchant lookout for the sublime.

Stephen Brook was born on 20 June 1947 to Jewish parents in London. He “developed a taste for travel” as a child, when his parents took him on annual holidays through France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. Attending Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied literature and philosophy, Brook graduated in the spring of 1969 and began a career in publishing. After a short stint as an editor with Cassell in London, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, in December 1969 to join his American girlfriend. They were married a few...