All the daftest bits of Top Gear in a book

I bought this for my 12-year-old son and he loved it. If you're looking for serious car reviews (or serious material of any kind) you will be sadly disappointed - this book definitely focuses on the laddish and jokey elements of the show, and if you like those, you'll love this. There is a 'What Top Gear Team Member are You?' quiz, a feature on 'Why Caravans are just Wrong', lots of spoof adverts for Top Gear products, a Biggles-type cartoon strip and numerous features on the various insane challenges that the guys have attempted. In summary - perfect for 12-year-old boys of all ages!!

Value for money

This is an excellent purchase, what would you get for under a fiver nowadays? As a novice gardener I found the chapters on planning the gardening year and getting the most from your land absolutely vital.This guide covers the basics in a very comprehensive manner indeed and although a little lacking in the visual side of things the quality of information contained more than compensates.The brief guide to vegetables is excellent and I can safely say this guide will continue to be used as a reference even after my garden is well established.Worth every penny.

Cesar's Way

This is an excellent instruction book because it lets you learn how to tap in to a dog mind, be prapered to change the way you interact with the dog, my dog was not bad, but because he was a rescued had some big problem,he had pofecional training but I realised his training was incomplet because I was not getting to the dogs natural mind,I have put the method in practise and it WORKS, he gets only half hour walk in the morning(Cesars Way)and 20 minutes in the evening on long leash. My dog is a Staff,and a strong one at that.
Hope this will benefite your dog and you.
Regards
Ellen Robbins

An excellent little book

This little gem of a book should be in every backpackers back pocket. Concise, focused and descriptive you'll have no trouble identifying the plants and shellfish. There has been some comments about lack of information on animals to eat, this is probably because rabbits, pheasants and such are classed as game and will belong to the landowner. Whilst it's ok to pick a few plants, mushrooms and shellfish it will probably be frowned on if you start blasting away at the countryside or setting traps!

A great read

This book is wonderful, imaginative, easy to read and understand. I also found it entertaining, for a 'non cook' that is praise indeed! Although I am no great cook, I do keep chickens for eggs, the wife wont let me eat them, (yet!)I do grow lots of stuff, and much of this is credited to the Author. A man who cherishes his food and where it comes from, and how. This book comes close to being my Bible

Details about the 2nd WW that have never been told in full before

A surprisingly readable book, including previously unseen photographs. The reason for me reading this book and the most interesting details for me are those concerning the little known alliance between Stalin and Hitler prior to and at the beginning of the war and the relationship between the 3 elderly men who decided on the grossly unfair divisions following the war at the summit at Yalta .

I was surprised when reading some of the early chapters that the scandalous invasion of Poland from the Soviet side was more or less allowed to happen and despite the heartfelt pleas from the Polish ambassador the mass killing and deportation of civilians was permitted to go on freely. 'We have no quarrel with the Soviets' the British Government said whilst murder was blatantly being perpetrated. Behind the scenes though,a tit for tat conspiracy was being carried out between Hitler and Stalin which left the unfortunate Poles compromised completely. Despite the huge Polish loss of life and their heroic fight for freedom they were betrayed by what they thought were their allies. I found the 4000 brave Polish men killed at Montecasino particularly moving, when you realise they were sacrificed and unappreciated for their efforts.

A complex political situation continued right through until the end of the war when it seems that Stalin had to be compensated for losing 27 million troops (27 million compared with only 400 000 each for UK and US) Not that the mad and vindictive Stalin cared for his people, he happily murdered or transported millions for a whim. Additionally Russia was by the end of the war occupying much of Eastern Europe, too bad for those millions and millions of tragic people who had to suffer another 50 years of dictatorial communist rule! Churchill and Roosavelt do not come out of this that well though their positions were completely untenable, they more or less had no option but to agree with the psycopathic Stalin who had helped them out.

Watching the BBC production alongside reading the book adds to the interest and in particular I was pretty horrified at Churchill and Roosevelt quaffing champagne in the relative peace of Canada whilst Europe was almost completely flattened. Also seeing how duped Roosevelt was to take advice from what turned out to be a Soviet spy. Politicians!!!

I was however quite impressed by President De Gaulle who refused to recognise the puppet government of Poland at the end of the war and even the ever devious Stalin respected De Gaulles
suspicions. Stalin noted the French leaders insight, but told the interpreter at the meeting that he would be sent to Siberia for knowing too much!

There is lots to interest in this new book with some fantastic details, first hand witness reports and new information that makes this book a really good historical read. Well worth the price at Amazon in particular.

A Fruit and Veg 'Bible'

An absolute pleasure to browse through and a thorough 'how to' guide. Clearly laid out. Doubt it could be bettered!

Satire with a Message

Cheeta, the star of eleven feature films with the best Tarzan there ever will be, Johnny Weissmuller, tells us what it was like in Hollywood during the Golden Age.

While Me Cheeta is hilariously, laugh-out-loud funny in many sequences, there is a serious message under the chuckles; he was removed from his native habitat, along with thousands of other animals over the years, for the sole purpose of entertaining humans (in a particularly frightening episode, he is almost sent to a lab). He, with tongue firmly in cheek, refers to this as being"rescued," but it's left to the intelligent reader to make the distinction.

Cheeta describes partying with David Niven (or"Niv," as Cheeta calls him), among many others, and has some very sharp barbs for Chaplin, Rooney and Esther Williams. The most touching passages are when he talks about his work and life with Johnny. There is great love there, and the autobiography is as much about Weissmuller as it is about Cheeta.

Another reviewer here goes on at eloquent length as to what specifically makes this book so marvelous. I would be stealing from that reviewer if I shared my thoughts. I'd only like to say that the conceit of reading a book telling you what Hollywood was like as seen through the eyes of a chimp may be an odd one, but this was a treat from beginning to end. I'm so glad I had the chance to read it.

Really did make me laugh and cry

This is a lovely book to read. I am an owner of 2 badly behaved dogs who I really love, so lots of the trouble that Marley gets into seemed very familiar and I found myself laughing out loud many times - not a book to read in public.
As the book progresses and you realise that the enevitable ending is approaching, I found myself getting more upset and ending up sobbing towards the end of the book - not usually a reaction I have to any book, although my elder dog is now 12 and getting blind/deaf so it made me think more about him.
Beautifully written and lovely description of Marley. Any dog lover should read this book.

BEST BOOK EVER!!!!!!!

This is the best book i've ever read. When reading this it makes you laugh at all the bad things marley did but then the end is so so so so so sad. A great memoir for a great dog I say. Can't wait to see the film version, out here February 2009 and out in America on Christmas day 2008. It's got Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston in it so it's got to be as good as the book.

Essential Reading

An essential guide for everyone who is a gardener who wants to preserve their own produce.

A book to savour

This book is a delight (as is the garden in real life) The author is knowledgeable and paints the most vivid pictures. It is a book about the area of Shropshire she lives in, how it has evolved through the centuries, the house and garden and her sensitive reconstruction of it. She is a lady after my own heart with interests such as history, gardens, cats, flowers, geology, weather....it is so well written, I highly recommend it.

the best book I ever bought

Genuinely, this book has enriched my life. This sounds very strong language, but a glimpse of how achieveable a degree of self sufficiency can be is a great stress-buster and very uplifting.

Practical, useful, full of ideas and inspiration, this book will motivate anyone to take a step or two towards self sufficiency, wherever they live.

Every chapter is interesting, well written, and well illustrated. The craft skills are useful and practical and whilst a compost-toilet is not quite the thing for our garden in the suburbs, all the practical projects are well described and amply illustrated.

A great reference book, a comfort on a cold winter's night, I recommend it to anyone.

Great book

I bought this book and I must say it is a very good laugh and makes a brilliant gift or stocking feeler at Christmas.

A must have for any cat lover!

The title of this review is a bit of a cliché, but its true!
I bought this calendar last year for someone as a Christmas present but loved it so much I bought myself one too. The photography is stunning - not just bog standard pictures of cats like you get in most calendars. The pictures are high quality and printed on good quality card. It says"page-a-day" but there is just one picture/page for a weekend (Saturday and Sunday) but that is fine with me. On each page there is a quote, hint, information etc on cats. The stand the cards are held in is very secure and easy to manage. Everyday you move the front card to the back of the pile to reveal the next days picture (you must do this in order daily). You do this for 6 months then you see a page telling you that you have come to the end, then all you do is take all the cards out of the stand and turn them all round at once, put them all back in the stand, then continue like you did before as each card has a picture/date on each side (I hope that makes sense). The calendar comes in a box and the calendar itself is wrapped in cellophane inside the box.

All in all, I think this is a wonderful calendar, much better than the monthly kind as you are getting more for your money! It's good quality and reasonably priced too.

How to do everything ... in two paragraphs

There is no denying the scope of this book is, to say the least, comprehensive. It covers almost every topic imaginable in DIY from dry lining your basement to capping the chimney and covers it at every range whether you just want to change a fuse or rewire the entire building.

That scope though is both its virtue and its problem. Yes I can pick this up and be fairly confident that it will tell me how to go about building a stud wall but I know that it is also likely to be something of an overview of the subject rattled off in a few paragraphs. Often that is enough. There are a lot of jobs where a grasp of the basics and a willingness to have a go are good enough and if I'm laying new paving slabs I'll read this and go for it. Alternatively there are some jobs where I'd like a little more expertise than this can provide. Yes this book will tell me how to change the main fuse box but I'm not going to do that when it means working on the live side of a 100 amp line! In those cases though at least it lets me know roughly how difficult the job is so that I don't sound like a complete numpty when I call an electrician and ask if they could replace the 'thingummy by the front door with the fuses in it'.

The new (2007) edition has some changes most are improvements, some are not, but the improvements could be sufficient to make it getting the new edition. On the downside the binding is not as good as previous issues so this is a book which could suffer in use. On the upside there is more detail about building regulations and approval. Not in so much detail that it gets in the way of what you want to do but enough to give an overview of the process and in a nod to the way the world moves there are now sections on 'communications' and the 'office at home'.

I'd say to anyone that they should buy this book even if you don't ever intend to do the DIY yourself. If you do the DIY this is a good first reference to find out what to do. If it's not comprehensive enough then it will give enough of an overview that you will know what to look for when searching for more detail and if you do get someone else to do the job you've a better chance of knowing if they're doing the right thing.

Doggone fantastic!

Love Martin Clunes, love dogs, loved his recent documentary about dogs - so all good. This book does tally with the tv programme about history of dogs but the bits I actually enjoyed best are his own personal history with dogs and his present day trials, tribulations and joys with them. Just one thing - I'd love to know how Mary is these days.

Super absorbing read

I own every book Adam Nicolson has written. He writes beautiful prose and he writes with great sincerity and feeling. This was another book in the same glorious tradition and immensely enjoyable. Precious few authors can write as well as this

Superb interest blend of photography through horses

I saw a review of this book a month or so ago in the Daily Express and was delighted to find it available at a very reasonable price on Amazon, as a Christmas present for a friend. It arrived quickly and I unpacked it to look at it myself. It is an amazing book, of interest both to those who love horses, and those who appreciate the intricacies of excellent photography alike. For those who go ahead and purchase this book, it is worth noting that there are great little snippets of information alongside the thumbnail pictures towards the end of the book that refer to the full size photos within the book, so well worth keeping a thumb in at the back so you can read those notes while appreciating the pictures. I know my friend is going to love this book when she opens it on Christmas Day, and that other family members of hers will be equally impressed by it. Great value; great quality book. Love it!