Pinza is the nom-de-plume of Christopher Webber—writer, music critic, actor and stage director. You can read more about Christopher here.
His interest in horse racing goes back a long way: his first memory is sitting on his Grandmother’s lap during the 1959 Grand National, and of being swiftly decanted when her investment (Surprise Packet) fell at Becher’s 2nd time round. He honed his reading skills by deciphering newspaper race cards as Peter O’Sullevan read out the horses’ names on television.
He wrote the best-selling Bluff Your Way At The Races (Ravette 1993) and was founder-editor of the pioneering website devoted to comprehensive UK Horse Racing internet links, Nashwan’s Racing Links, described by the Racing Post as “indispensable”and later sold for a handsome sum – alas, the only serious profit Christopher has made out of the Sport to date.
His (in)famous contributions to The Racing Forum came to a sudden halt in November 2011, when he was banned for his passionate, imperious and infuriatingly repetitive posts on the new whip rules introduced by the British Horseracing Authority.
Pinza 
…and all at once everything comes full circle, sir – a gently yellowed copy of Bluff Your Way At The Races (and the shelf on which it sits), gifted to me on what must have been my twentieth Christmas in my present Earthly form, overlooks the very laptop on which I currently pound. Ergo something or other.
(NB In addition to “Races”, “Bluff Your Way In Seduction” was also retrieved from my modest stocking that Yuletide. Needless to say, alas, practical application of the latter title’s contents has consistently proven far more beyond me than those of the former. 😉 )
gc
GC, fine sentiments indeed… the gentle yellowing is melancholy (the Bluffers’ Guides didn’t go in for high quality rag) and afflicts the Author also. For some weird reason which escapes me the book got translated into Czech (perhaps because it mentions the Pardubice) and that version hasn’t been wearied by age, nor yet staled by custom. I hope the spine of your Bluff Your Way in Seduction hasn’t cracked, nor your corners been foxed…