Bluffer's Guide to Skiing: Bluff Your Way in Skiing (Bluffer's Guides Series) »

Born in the Black Country in 1954, David Allsop's introduction to skiing was on a rudimentary mono-ski down the slopes of a slag heap in Quarry Bank. He spent the next 30-odd years scrupulously avoiding anything to do with sliding downhill.

Persuaded to go on a skiing trip to Cervinia in the mid 1980s, he instantly became the sort of fount of skiing knowledge that people fight to sit next to at dinner parties. Unaccountably, he finds invitations to dine have become somewhat more elusive.

After 20 trial careers in occupations as diverse as growing beansprouts and working as a barrister, he found his niche amidst the peaks and troughs of freelance journalism - adding ski-writing to his formidable portfolio of areas of professed expertise.

By dint of bluff and good luck he has managed to ski, at little cost to himself, in over 200 resorts - with a skiing style that was once described by a member of the Compagnie des Guides as 'comme une vache espagnole'* which he chooses to regard as a rare example of French irony.

He is married to another hopelessly addicted skier and lives in Blackheath, London (altitude 127 metres).

* 'Like a Spanish cow'.

A snappy little book containing facts, jargon, and inside information--all that readers need to know to hold their own among the experts.