Tag: non-fiction

Review – It’s The End of the World

Posted September 16, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – It’s The End of the World

It's the End of the World: But What Are We Really Afraid Of?

by Adam Roberts

Genres: Non-fiction
Pages: 202
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

A trailblazing and highly topical look at how - and why - we imagine the world is going to end.

Are we doomed? Is an almighty power or an earth-shattering meteor waiting for us just around the corner?

In this thought-provoking book, Professor Adam Roberts explores our many different cultural visions of the end of the world - likely and unlikely, mundane and bizarre - and what they say about how we see ourselves and our societies. What is it is that we are really afraid of? An uncaring universe; an uncontrollable environment; the human capacity for destruction; or just our own, personal apocalypse - our mortality?

From last man and dying earth fiction to zombies swarming on screen and the ruined landscapes of immersive gaming, via sweeping contagions, invading aliens, falling bombs and rising robots, buckle up for the end of the world.

I felt like Adam Roberts’ It’s The End of the World: But What Are We Really Afraid Of? was less insightful than I’d hoped. It uses a few examples per chapter to discuss various kinds of apocalypse stories and why we’re fascinated by them, but it mostly seemed pretty obvious — though this might in part be due to my background in literature, so it may be more exciting/surprising to someone who hasn’t really explored the idea before.

I think Roberts should proooobably stay in his lane, though, since he opines on epidemiology without apparently doing any research, suggesting that globalisation reduces the risks of disease spreading:

As the global population increases, and as globalisation mixes up populations, epidemics have less bite, thanks to a better understanding of how to prevent the spread of disease, and the twinned healthcare countermeasures of immunisation and the improved treatment of those who fall sick.

The global population increase contributes to people being packed in closer together in cities, which makes epidemics more risky. The mixing of populations increases the risk of transmission between groups that wouldn’t have formerly come into contact. The expansion and mobility of the population encroaches further and further on the remaining “wild” areas, which lead to people being more in contact with animals who may harbour zoonotic diseases. We don’t have vaccines for diseases we’ve never encountered before, and those definitely still exist. We don’t have good treatments for many of the diseases we already know about, let alone ones we’ve never encounted or have never encountered at scale.

He’s just wrong in basically every way to say this, and he should probably stick to literary criticism rather than casually spread misinformation. He also later says that:

No plague will kill 4,999 out of every 5,000 humans — as we’ve seen [from SARS-CoV-2], even if the numbers are high, in terms of percentage of population it’s likely to be very low.

I don’t want to get on my soapbox for too long about a short chapter in a short book about science fiction, but I feel like this kind of pronouncement is so naive and such a threat that it needs calling out every single time. SARS-CoV-2 didn’t prove that there will never be a more dangerous pandemic. That we’ve survived this one doesn’t mean we’ll survive the next.

So, overall a bit disappointing, this one. By the nature of the beast, he also missed out many really great examples, but I wouldn’t ding him for that; mostly I just feel that it didn’t go very deep into this stuff, and that he should stay in his lane.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

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Review – The Postal Paths

Posted September 12, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Postal Paths

The Postal Paths: Rediscovering Britain's Forgotten Routes - And the People Who Walked Them

by Alan Cleaver

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 284
Synopsis:

'Seeing the hills, the crofts, villages and ruins only tells half the story. The people who worked, walked, lived and died here are the other half.'

Postal paths span the length and breadth of Britain - from the furthermost corners of the Outer Hebrides to the isolated communities clinging to the cliffs of the Rame Peninsula in south-east Cornwall. For over 200 years, postmen and women have delivered post to homes across Britain on foot, no matter how remote.

A chance remark by a farmer about a Postman's Path led Alan Cleaver on a quest to discover more about this network of lanes, short-cuts and footpaths in the British landscape. From the rolling fells of Cumbria to Kent's shingle coast, he walked in the footsteps of 20th Century posties. And what he found, through conversation and painstaking research, was not just beautiful scenery. It was an incredible, forgotten slice of social history - the tales and toil of rural postmen and women trudging down lanes, over fields, and even across rivers to make sure the post always came on time.

From women like Hannah Knowles, who began her job delivering letters in 1912 and would only miss three days through illness over the next 62 years of service, to a WW1 veteran who completed his 9-mile delivery route on one leg, Postal Paths paints a vivid picture of people who not only served communities but brought them together, one letter at a time.

Alan Cleaver’s The Postal Paths is a bit of a walking memoir, a bit of a history of the work of rural postal workers in the years before bikes and vans, when it was a long, long walking round and the postie often sold stamps along the way, popped in for a chat with farmers at isolated farmhouses, etc.

Cleaver is at pains to demonstrate the love their communities had for them, and often the love they had for the work, though this inevitably paints a rather rosy picture. He does discuss a couple of postal workers who advocated for better treatment, but even so, they were still dedicated postal workers — almost as though it was more a calling than a job. No doubt for some it was, and for some it wasn’t; the sources here are pretty biased, I’d say.

He discusses some of the routes, which are hopefully easier to follow by looking them up online; in this book there are no maps or simple directions, but rather long discussions of his thoughts and feelings while walking a particular route. At times he’s a bit sanctimonious about walking and handwritten letters, which grates as a reader who likes both but understands that there’s a lot of privilege in having the time, energy, physical fitness and money.

Still, the pleasure he takes in the research and the walking is clear, and those who enjoy walking memoir type stuff might enjoy it even without an interest in postal history. I’m not as sure the same is true the other way round; it felt like it leaned heavily toward the descriptions of walking the paths, at least in some chapters.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

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Review – Rebel Bodies

Posted September 11, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Review – Rebel Bodies

Rebel Bodies: A Guide to the Gender Health Gap Revolution

by Sarah Graham

Genres: Non-fiction
Pages: 288
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

An inclusive and empowering manifesto for change in women's healthcare - exploring the systemic and deep rooted sexism within medicine, and offering actionable ways for women to advocate for ourselves and others and get the diagnosis and treatment we need.

Have you ever been to a doctor and felt like you were being fobbed off or ignored? Did they belittle or overlook your concerns about your health? Ever been told you're just 'hormonal'? You're not alone.

Women make up 51 per cent of the population and are the biggest users of healthcare services - for themselves and as mothers and carers. But all the research shows there are massive gender differences in men and women's healthcare. Our pain and suffering has been disbelieved; we are misdiagnosed and not trusted to make informed choices about our own bodies.

As women speak out about their experiences of gaslighting and misdiagnosis, health journalist Sarah Graham investigates what it will take to bridge the gender health gap. Meet the patients, doctors and campaigners who are standing up and fighting back, and find practical tips on advocating for your own health. Be inspired by stories that will incite and offer hope.

You're not alone, you're not going mad, and we believe you.

Sarah Graham’s Rebel Bodies is an inclusive discussion of the problems with gendered healthcare in the UK — not just the issues women face in receiving appropriate care, but also the issues for trans, non-binary and intersex people. In several instances she focuses on the specific issues for black women and people who don’t speak much English, as well, and includes the perspectives of a whole range of people.

It’s a really validating read if you’ve suffered similar — for example, like myself being treated with antidepressants for gallstones, and not being trusted to even manage my own asthma care (unlike most patients, my own experience of my asthma is routinely ignored, I am not permitted to have a peak flow meter to monitor how well my treatment is working, and I am not trusted to comply with my own medication) — and offers some resources and advice. If you’ve had cause to navigate the system already, there’s probably not a lot new here, but it’s still interesting and useful to be validated.

(It was a little less validating to read someone comparing endometriosis to asthma, suggesting that their asthma gets treated properly because it’s non-gendered, because that isn’t my experience. I recognise that they weren’t saying “female-bodied people never have trouble getting proper treatment for asthma”, but the comparison was still a little bitter.)

I’d say this is a good resource for people in the UK, but a lot of the discussion is very specific to the UK. There are absolutely parallels in other countries, and some of the ideas about self-advocacy are useful, but a lot of the problems discussed are reinforced (and sometimes created) by our health system, and as such isn’t applicable. I’d say it has much lower utility for people in other countries, which is worth bearing in mind.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – 100 Dresses

Posted September 7, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Review – 100 Dresses

100 Dresses

by The Costume Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Genres: Fashion, History, Non-fiction
Pages: 232
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

An irresistible look into more than 300 years of fashion through an exquisite collection of designer dresses

What woman can resist imagining herself in a beautiful designer dress? Here, for the first time ever, are 100 fabulous gowns from the permanent collection of the renowned Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, each of which is a reminder of the ways fashion reflects the broader culture that created it.

Featuring designs by Paul Poiret, Coco Chanel, Madame Gr s, Yves Saint Laurent, Gianni Versace, Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, and many others, this one-of-a-kind collection presents a stunning variety of garments. Ranging from the buttoned-up gowns of the late 17th century to the cutting-edge designs of the early 21st, the dresses reflect the sensibilities and excesses of each era while providing a vivid picture of how styles have changed--sometimes radically--over the years. A late 1600s wool dress with a surprising splash of silver thread; a large-bustled red satin dress from the 1800s; a short, shimmery 1920s dancing dress; a glamorous 1950s cocktail dress; and a 1960s minidress--each tells a story about its period and serves as a testament to the enduring ingenuity of the fashion designer's art.

Images of the dresses are accompanied by informative text and enhanced by close-up details as well as runway photos, fashion plates, works of art, and portraits of designers. A glossary of related terms is also included.

100 Dresses is a very shallow overview of some of the dresses held by The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and as such is obviously a very narrow selection. It’s heavy on some individual designers (like Dior) and surprisingly light on others (Vionnet), and it’s not like there’s a lot of details about any given dress or designer, but it’s still a fun quick read.

Despite the short blurbs for each dress, there are some fascinating details — I particularly boggled at the dress with probably hundreds of pleats, pressed rather than stitched into place, which would need to be returned to the designer for the pleats to be re-set if it got damp or just crushed with wear.

Not exactly a groundbreaking volume, but enjoyable.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

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Review – The Paper Chase

Posted September 5, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Review – The Paper Chase

The Paper Chase: The Printer, The Spymaster & The Hunt for the Rebel Pamphleteers

by Joseph Hone

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 272
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

In the summer of 1705, a masked woman knocked on the door of David Edwards’s London workshop. She did not leave her name, only a package and a coded means of identifying her courier.

Edwards was a Welsh printer working in the dark confines of Nevill’s Alley, outside the city walls. The package was an illegal, anonymous pamphlet: The Memorial of the Church of England. The argument it proposed threatened to topple the government, but sedition sold well in the coffeehouses of Fleet Street and the woman promised protection. Edwards swiftly set about printing and surreptitiously distributing the pamphlet.

Parliament was soon in turmoil and government minister Robert Harley launched a hunt for all those involved. When Edwards was nowhere to be found, his wife was imprisoned and the pamphlet was burnt in his place. The printer was not the only villain, though, and Harley had to find the unknown writers who wished to bring the government down.

Full of original research, The Paper Chase tears through the backstreets of London and its corridors of power as Edwards’s allegiances waver and Harley’s grasp on parliament threatens to slip. Amateur detectives and government spies race to unmask the secrets of the age in this complex break-neck political adventure. Joseph Hone shows us a nation in crisis through the fascinating story of a single incendiary document.

Joseph Hone’s The Paper Chase: The Printer, The Spymaster, and the Hunt for the Rebel Pamphleteers digs into the publication and censorship of a very particular pamphlet published in 1705 by a Welsh printer working in London, David Edwards. It’s actually available online via the Open Library, if you’re curious to get a look at it.

Joseph Hone paints a vivid picture of the world of illicit printing and its dangers through the reception of the Memorial, and David Edwards’ run from the law. Much of the book focuses on the government minister, Robert Harley, and his attempts to find and punish the authors of the Memorial; this somewhat makes sense as a choice because the best evidence is what Harley had in his hands, with the true authors of the Memorial probably eventually correctly identified, but not through books and papers of their own. (At least, if they exist then Hone doesn’t discuss them at all.)

On the other hand, it means that the narrative is pretty much on Robert Harley’s side — the side of censorship. It does sympathise somewhat with Edwards, whose life and livelihood were threatened while the influential writers of the pamphlet hid (after assuring him of their protection when he agreed to print it for them)… but mostly it follows Harley’s efforts to track down the perpetrators. The tone is anti-Whig, pro-Tory, pro-censorship, I think; perhaps that was somewhat forced upon the author by the angle he used to get at the whole thing and examine evidence, but… Hmm. In general, the heavily fictionalised narrative lends itself to all manner of bias.

In addition, it’s a little awkward to follow up on everything, because although there are notes, the book lacks numbered footnotes, and the bibliography is in the form of a bibliographic essay. I admit, I didn’t dig into that at all, other than looking up the Memorial for myself and a couple of historical facts.

It’s not all negative or ambivalent; I found the first half a little slow, as I tried to get my head around the period (which I don’t know very well), but the second half was pretty good. Mary Edwards (the printers’ wife) seemed pretty awesome, a determined investigator and advocate for her husband, though I wish there’d been more to know about the other women in the case (the woman in the vizard mask who took the material to David Edwards’ press to print, or the servant who was with her). It can be difficult to tell the fiction from the fact, but it was still an interesting read, bearing that in mind.

I’m a bit torn on how to rate it, so definitely bear in mind my caveats.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

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Review – The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective

Posted September 2, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Review – The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective

The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective

by Sara Lodge

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 384
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

A revelatory history of the women who brought Victorian criminals to account—and how they became a cultural sensation

From Wilkie Collins to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the traditional image of the Victorian detective is male. Few people realise that women detectives successfully investigated Victorian Britain, working both with the police and for private agencies, which they sometimes managed themselves.

Sara Lodge recovers these forgotten women’s lives. She also reveals the sensational role played by the fantasy female detective in Victorian melodrama and popular fiction, enthralling a public who relished the spectacle of a cross-dressing, fist-swinging heroine who got the better of love rats, burglars, and murderers alike.

How did the morally ambiguous work of real women detectives, sometimes paid to betray their fellow women, compare with the exploits of their fictional counterparts, who always save the day? Lodge’s book takes us into the murky underworld of Victorian society on both sides of the Atlantic, revealing the female detective as both an unacknowledged labourer and a feminist icon.

I found Sara Lodge’s The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective really interesting. It’s worth knowing right up front that Lodge isn’t necessarily talking about police-appointed official detectives, or even private detectives in their own rights: sometimes they’re police matrons, bystanders, the wives of policemen, etc. She argues that they were all part of an understanding in the period that women were working as detectives, despite it being viewed as a largely masculine profession.

Lodge discusses lots of examples, both factual and fictional, to build up the picture of how female detective work was understood in the Victorian era — mostly in the UK, but a little bit in the US, since there was some cross-pollination there. It’s all pretty fascinating to me, as someone who’s studied a little bit about the development of crime/mystery fiction as a genre, and maintained an interest in reading a lot of classics. I wonder if the British Library Crime Classics might pick up some of the older female detective stories Lodge discusses…

The book has detailed, numbered footnotes, a selected bibliography, and an index, which is always appreciated.

Overall, I found it very worth it, though I wish it’d dug a bit more into the genderbending and identity stuff that some female detectives played with. It feels like we only saw a tiny glimpse of that, mostly in the context of the stage, but that whet my appetite for more!

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – A Brief Atlas of the Lighthouses at the End of the World

Posted August 28, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – A Brief Atlas of the Lighthouses at the End of the World

A Brief Atlas of the Lighthouses at the End of the World

by González Macías

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 150
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

There is something beautiful and wild in the impossible architecture of lighthouses. They have been the homes and workplaces of men and women whose romantic guardianship has saved countless lives from cruel seas. Yet while that way of life fades away, as the lights go out and the buildings crumble, we still have their stories.

From a blind lighthouse keeper tending a light in the Arctic Circle, to an intrepid young girl saving ships from wreck at the foot of her father's lighthouse, and the plight of the lighthouse crew cut off from society for forty days, this is a glorious book full of illuminating stories that will transport the reader to the world's most isolated and inspiring lighthouses.

With over thirty tales that explore the depths to which we can sink and the heights to which we can soar as human beings, and accompanied by beautiful illustrations, nautical charts, maps, architectural plans and curious facts, A Brief Atlas of the Lighthouses at the End of the World is as full of wonder as the far flung lighthouses themselves.

Translated from Spanish by Daniel Hahn.

González MacĂ­as’ A Brief Atlas of the Lighthouses at the End of the World was a very random pick from the library, inspired by Postcrossing’s first ever postcard, PT-1, and the semi-frequent requests from other members for postcards of lighthouses. The book covers ~35 lighthouses, recounting some of their histories and sources, and locating them on the map.

It’s a fun little history, albeit very light and including stuff like ghost stories with dubious levels of sourcing. Fact and fiction can be hard to tell apart in that context. Sometimes it describes photos without including them, too, which is a bit annoying — I’d love to have seen them.

Still, pretty interesting as a surprise light read!

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

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Review – Preventable

Posted August 27, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Preventable

Preventable: How A Pandemic Changed the World and How to Stop the Next One

by Devi Sridhar

Genres: Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 432
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

The definitive story of COVID-19 and how global politics shape our health - from a world-leading expert and the pandemic's go-to science communicator.

Professor Devi Sridhar has risen to prominence for her vital roles in communicating science to the public and speaking truth to power. In Preventable she highlights lessons learned from outbreaks past and present in a narrative that traces the COVID-19 pandemic - including her personal experience as a scientist - and sets out a vision for how we can better protect ourselves from the inevitable health crises to come.

In gripping and heartfelt prose, Sridhar exposes the varied realities of those affected and puts you in the room with key decision makers at crucial moments. She vibrantly conveys the twists and turns of a plot that saw: deadlier variants emerge (contrary to the predictions of social media pundits who argued it would mutate to a milder form); countries with weak health systems like Senegal and Vietnam fare better than countries like the US and UK (which were consistently ranked as the most prepared); and the quickest development of game-changing vaccines in history (and their unfair distribution).

Combining science, politics, ethics and economics, this definitive book dissects the global structures that determine our fate, and reveals the deep-seated economic and social inequalities at their heart - it will challenge, outrage and inspire.

Devi Sridhar’s Preventable is a discussion of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the global response to it, and how we could’ve handled it better (mostly, how governments could have handled it better). It came out in 2022, so it’s a little out of date now, but I found it an interesting read nonetheless.

Before I go further with the review, a quick note that I studied Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, starting in 2020 and completing this year, achieving an MSc with merit. So this is a field I know well and am well-qualified to comment on, and I know a fair amount of the cutting-edge stuff about SARS-CoV-2 because I was taught by people who were (and are) researching it. I also volunteered with the WHO managing data about travel restrictions and lockdowns, so I kept fairly abreast of that side of things too. All this to say, you should always take things on the internet with a grain of salt, but that’s where I’m coming from as a reader.

Broadly speaking, I agree with Sridhar’s discussion of how we could’ve prevented the pandemic, or at least the loss of life (and disability-adjusted life years as well). I’d say I remain a little more cautious than she was in 2022, since now in 2025 I still wear a mask in crowded indoor spaces, but things have changed since then (e.g. COVID vaccines are no longer available on the NHS for the majority of people), and I think a bit more is understood about long COVID (or at least about the fact that there isn’t an easy and immediate solution to it just waiting in the scientific wings to fix everything).

I found her tone a bit defensive, but that kinda makes sense: as a scientist and a woman who was saying some pretty unpopular (but generally sensible) things, she faced quite a bit of abuse from the public. Still, I’m a bit iffy about her defenders being people like Piers Morgan, not scientists, and the amount of celebrity name-dropping she does in the book (and which her publisher does on the book cover). I don’t care what Piers Morgan thinks of her!

I was a bit surprised by her degree of support for the idea that SARS-CoV-2 came out of a lab. I do understand the reasons she gives, and the suspicious behaviour of the Chinese government, but… I’m surprised it’s not being treated as a more fringe belief here (though she does emphasise that she’s not seeing any malicious intent, just some kind of lab accident through contact with infected bats).

Her critiques of the British, Swedish and US governments are pretty sound as far as they go, and her praise of the response in other countries likewise tallies pretty well too. I’d just wish for a bit more attention re: long COVID, and maybe a bit more understanding that the vaccine isn’t perfect, and then vaccination wasn’t enough for everyone to go back to normal. She does highlight the problematicness of people with disabilities being told to cut themselves off from society to survive, but she seems to have forgotten that by the conclusion of the book, in her optimistic hope for things to get back to normal.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

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Review – Monsters

Posted August 22, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Monsters

Monsters: A Bestiary of the Bizarre

by Christopher Dell

Genres: Non-fiction
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

Monsters have preoccupied mankind from the earliest times: even cave art includes animal-human monsters. Certainly monsters were present in the ancient religions of Egypt and Mesopotamia; the Old Testament describes the giant land and sea monsters Behemoth and Leviathan, while in the world of Classical mythology, monsters embody the fantasies of the gods and the cruellest punishments of human beings. While we may no longer worry about being eaten by trolls on the way home, there remains a fascination with these creatures who have shadowed us throughout history. This book explores monsters down the ages and throughout the world. It provides a dark yet engrossing visual history of the human mind, lit up by flashes of wild and unearthly inspiration.

Christopher Dell’s Monsters was a bit of a random choice from the library while I happened to be in that area of the library for something else. It’s a pretty fun volume, largely reproducing images of monsters with only brief discussion of those monsters — it’s all in full colour, glossy pages, etc, so it certainly looks good.

I would’ve loved a bit more discussion, of course, but that’s not really what the book is meant for. If anything, given that, it felt like it needed to be longer and include more examples and images. In addition, it’d have been helpful to have an info bar about each individual image, rather than just a bare list of the images on preceding pages.

Interesting, but not well executed.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

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Review – Beneath Our Feet

Posted August 21, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Beneath Our Feet

Beneath Our Feet

by Michael Lewis, Ian Richardson

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 240
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Britain has a rich past, with incredible archaeology. Every day, new discoveries transform our understanding of its history. Most are made not by professional archaeologists, but by ordinary members of the public. Some are chance finds; others are recovered by the thousands of fieldwalkers, mudlarks, and metal detectorists who scour Britain's countryside and waterways looking for artifacts and coins.

Beneath Our Feet is a celebration of this growing public involvement in archaeology, and of the groundbreaking work of the Portable Antiquities Scheme managed by the British Museum in England and Amgueddfa Cymru in Wales. Its mission is collaboration with public finders, encouraging them to report their discoveries so they can be recorded on a national database and shared with archaeologists, historians, and everyone with an interest in the past buried beneath our feet.

From the 3,500-year-old Ringlemere Cup to the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard, a heart pendant connected to Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, and a jar of American gold coins buried by a Jewish refugee fleeing the Nazis, these are the stories of more than fifty astonishing treasures, the people who found them, and how they are reshaping British history.

Beneath Our Feet is by Michael Lewis and Ian Richardson, but it covers the finds of many ordinary people — not archaeologists, but metal detectorists, fieldwalkers, mudlarks, and people who just chanced across their finds. In the UK there’s a system to get such things declared and recorded in order that museums can acquire them for display and study, which is great, and here the authors show off some of these items.

It’s a fully illustrated book with colourful, non-glossy pages, some of which are the items themselves and some just images that cast some light on them. I could’ve done with more sense of scale on some of the items, but for a few they do show the scale and the comparisons. Each object or set of objects gets discussed quite briefly, within a couple of pages, and a note about where it can be found now (e.g. a museum or a private collection), so it’s more of a taster than anything.

I really liked it — as a kid who grew up watching and loving Time Team, this kind of “everyday archaeology” (though some of the objects found are in fact officially Treasure and incredibly opulent) is incredibly fun to read about. And it’s a really well-presented book.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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