Norman Wright's Corkscrew Story.

Hi Steve,

I have already done a ‘who are we’ in the Worme but here are a couple of paras. for you as requested.

Having purchased a house in France in the late 80’s  we found ourselves visiting broncantes, antiquaires and depot vente regularly but buying nothing – we must start a collection – what could that be.   Our interest in wine had grown, we love visiting vineyards and tasting what was on offer so we decided that we should collect corkscrews.  At that time we thought that they were small and easily transported, plentiful, cheap and no-one else would be collecting, how wrong could we have been on almost all counts!

My first corkscrew was a key, very overpriced, but at that time a wonderful find, from an antiquaire in Les Sables d’Olonne.

It was some time later that my collection had grown to about 70 that a colleague put me in touch with Frank Ellis.  He invited me to his home to view his collection; I could not believe the variety, quality and quantity of what I saw and almost gave up collecting at that point.   However, Frank suggested that I should join the CCCC which I duly did and Margaret and I attended our first meeting in Saumur.   It was here that we began to appreciate the world of the helixophile.

Hope this will suffice,

Norman