You might be wondering what a book with this title is doing on this website. Well spotted! This is a book which uses the wacky idea that historical characters were tattooed, to tell some jokes. Some of the jokes are ones which you might not want to tell your grandma or your children as they…
Category: BOOK REVIEWS
Book review – Raptor by James Macdonald Lockhart
This book was a disappointment. The basic structure is a chapter by chapter account of 15 species of UK raptor, each described in a different place, stretching from Hen Harriers on Orkney in Chapter 1 to Devon Sparrowhawks in Chapter 15. Wrapped into this structure is a tale of the life, and a previous journey,…
Review of Inglorious from the USA
I’ve had a few conversations with American friends about grouse shooting and several have started with the American being sympathetic to grouse ‘hunting’ and them ending up saying ‘but that’s not hunting at all’. Correct! Driven grouse shooting is the most unsporting of sports and is akin to a computer game where one blasts away…
Sunday book review – Wild Island by Jane Smith
This is a lovely book about a lovely place – the island of Oronsay. I’ve seen Oronsay from afar but never visited. This book by artist Jane Smith opens the door to the island and its wildlife. Since Oronsay is an RSPB nature reserve I know some of the characters in the pages of this…
Sunday book review – the Sacred Combe by Simon Barnes
Simon Barnes’s new book is a very readable collection of stories, memories and short essays on places that are important to him – all with a strong link to the natural world. I enjoyed reading them. And I enjoyed the illustrations by Pam Guhrs-Carr too. I wasn’t completely convinced that the book deserved the handicap…
Sunday book review – Shetland by Ann Cleeves
Ann Cleeves is probably known to most people for her crime novels, the Vera and Shetland series. Back in the fairly distant past, Ann was the assistant cook at the Fair Isle Bird Observatory despite, she says, not being interested in birds and not being that great a cook. It was there that she met…
This blog’s books of the year
I have reviewed 28 books on this blog this year – an average of more than one a fortnight. Some of these are sent to me by publishers or authors, some I simply go out and buy. Which books you like is as personal a choice as what music you like. But for what it’s…
Sunday book review – Yorkshire Dales by John Lee
Sometimes I have a book for a while and I keep putting it down and the voice in my head says ‘I’ll settle down and read it a bit later’ and when that happens it’s a pretty good bet that I’m not going to be gripped by the book. This was one of those books…
Sunday book review – The Man who made things out of Trees by Robert Penn
I liked this book. It’s about Ash trees and what you can make out of their wood. It’s a simple enough idea but it takes the author, Robert Penn, to many parts of the UK , Europe and America and he meets a variety of interesting craftsmen on his journeys. Baseball bats, cricket stumps and…
Sunday book review – Natural Histories by Brett Westwood and Stephen Moss
This is the book of the radio programme. Have a look at that cover – very clever! And quite pretty, too. I’m almost totally addicted to Radio 4 and so I have heard bits of several of the radio programmes that make up the subject matter of this book. The basic idea is that each…