Bought this book with great expectations, but with no due diligence/ not having heard of it before.

Am always on the look out for a book written by someone who is passionate or knowledgeable about a topic that is of possible interest to me. And this looked interesting and promising.

Beautifully illustrated though oddly often the illustrations have nothing to do with each the surrounding text...try the illustration on page 213 or the flamingo on page 43.

And few captions for most illustrations....yes there is a list of illustrations from page 274 but some illustrations have captions others do not

The text is interesting and intriguing but comprises snippets rather than the more comprehensive story that the amateur that I would have liked. I appreciate that the topic is so large that no single volume is not going to be "comprehensive" and I was not looking for that but rather something that skates less across the surface

The bibliography is also a lost opportunity being "books I found most useful or interesting when I did my research" rather than indicating which books are directed /useful if a reader wanted to follow up one or more of the various topics discussed.

Worth reading? Yes so be conscious of your expectations in doing so.

Big Ship

5 January 2018 ( )