The scrapbooker in me loves this book for the pure visual experience I got as soon as I opened my Amazon parcel.
Certainly not your average cookbook - it really is set out like Maw Broons very own recipe book from magazine clippings, scribbles & doodles from the kids, tea stains and squished spiders between the pages! This by no means detracts from the very real recipes - good proper recipes that the family will eat not the fancy shmancy stuff that looks pretty but wouldn't fill a gnats belly.
I actually bought this for my sister for Christmas - purely for the nostalgia value as she collected the Broons and Oor Wullie books as a kid. I've now told her she isn't getting it unless she buys me one in return! :D
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Wow!
I finished reading this at 1 am last night. I was gripped from the start. It has a really simple style, but manages to get in a great deal of technical stuff, moving and funny human stories, and a bit of background on the British Army presencein Afghanistan. The flying and combat sequences are great, and the final showdown is terrific. By far the best book on modern combat I have read for years.
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First, the good stuff: this is a bold, honest, naked and funny tome about the writing process for one of television's most acclaimed comebacks. The reader follows Russell T. Davies through the agony and the ectasy of the entire writing process and, goaded along by Benjamin Cook, who acts as much as a muse as an enabler, the cigarette-fuelled revelations are so personal that one can get a contact high from being so ensconced in this man's head.
The pictures (including many beautiful stills during production as well as Davies' insanely brilliant cartoons) are to be cherished as much as the raw scripts that litter the hysterically titled email exchanges between Davies and Cook.
I have read short extracts from this book, which make me wonder if I should read the whole. From the comment by the NZ reader, it appears there are a number of chronological errors and also factual ones (Ivan Braithwaites non-death, etc). Having read the Mole books in sequence and enjoyed them, I would find it irritating to spot these mistakes. Like the NZ reader I too had an idea for a new Mole book (and in fact wrote the manuscript and sent it to a number of publishing agents) - mine is recollections by his friends (enemies) and relations about events in the past, but not recorded in previous books. I was very careful not to make any date/fact errors, and feel that, despite copyright, my manuscript could make as good a read as this latest effort from Sue ... Read More:
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As a cat lover this book instantly appealed to me. The content is witty, sharp and very, very funny! I shall be buying this for many of my relatives, regardless of them liking cats.
An imaginative insight into the minds of cats...
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I was hoping to find something of use in Twiggy's book - but it's nothing but a random, waffly set of anecdotes with lots of advertisements for products and clothes shops. If you're looking for real advice - about what suits your shape, what colours to wear past a certain age, some thoughts on styles - look somewhere else.
I returned my copy, because I was so disappointed - and thumbs up to Amazon for letting me!
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A very readable book, which includes photographs, previously unseen. The really interesting parts are of course the relationship between the 3 elderly men who decided on the incredibly unfair divisions following the war at the summit at Yalta + another easily forgotten or not discussed alliance between Stalin and Hitler prior to the war.
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 more or less permitted to go on freely. 'We have no quarrel with the Soviets' the British Government said. Behind the scenes though,a tit for tat conspiracy was being ... Read More:
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I have not read any other book about John Lennon so i cannot comment on the claims of "hackery" and my views are therefore only based on my reading of this book alone. And what a book. A brilliant read, very interesting details about his early life but also the book weaves the genesis of various songs and albums into the various stages of Lennon's life. I agree that the Yoko Ono years are slightly less interesting, however the final chapter, where Sean discusses some of his memories of John is really moving, sensitive and perceptive. Superb. A bout of flu has helped me devour the book in 4 days! I couldn't put it down. Wonderful.
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Gavin and Stacey has been something of a little phenomenon, winning awards aplenty and appealing to a wide cross-section of ages. Its success lies in creating a skewed but completely believable world populated by eccentric but lovable characters. Its essential sweetness is ideal for disguising the odd completely filthy gag or piercing satirical observation (the surnames of Gavin and Stacey being Shipman and West is only the tip of the iceberg. Here, for example, a police incident report recalling Gavin leaping a ticket barrier evokes uncomfortable parallels with the De Menezes case).
James Corden and Ruth Jones are not only wonderful performers but write with real comic insight into the quirkiness of life and the human condition. The story of Gavin and Stacey is, at heart, ... Read More:
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