If you like the museum you should like the book - Rated 
This is a personal view of life at the NHM with plenty of interesting science thrown in. It's a good mixture of anecdotes and fact, a difficult balancing act given the size of the museum and the length of its' history. Fortey himself just edges on the
irritating at times but his account is well written overall and easy to read. So if 'popular science' is a category you would browse I recommend this book.
A book about one of the World's greatest museums - Rated 
Those who have visited South Kensington in London will not have failed to miss the Natural History Museum on Cromwell Road. This immense, cathedral-like structure is both a very fine museum and a centre of research into taxonomy, palaeobiology, mineralogy and related areas.
Much of the museum is not open to the public, and this book introduces the laboratories; specimen preparations rooms; store rooms and much else to the reader. However, it is much more than this. The author parallels the guide book element with the natural history and science of a number of organisms described in the book. Useful information is provided on the origin of the museum, originally part of the British Museum, and how this was entwined with the development of Biology in the 19th Century, including the role of Sir Richard Owen. Also mentioned is the relationship between the government (i.e. funding) and the museum, not always smooth.
A particularly fascinating theme running through the book is the wonderfully eccentric nature of British Science and Scientists. We have the many fish men, lichen women, bat men, beetle people and the famous whale man (or whale pit man), Peter Purves. It may have been eccentric, stiff, regimented and under-funded but great Science was produced!
In conclusion, a great book essential for fans of the Natural History Museum.
Meandering description of people and science behind Natural History Museum, London - Rated 
The title refers to an obscure, hidden room in the non-public section of the London Natural History Museum, which houses all the forgotten, but fascinating animal artifacts that once played a purpose in highlighting some scientific truth to the public or researchers of the museum. The idea is that this book is a similar room for Forty as he recalls the various curious human creatures that inhabit this famous building.
The style of the book reflects this metaphor - at times being almost too exuberant, but at least interesting and imaginative, but at other times, especially when describing the science, becomes somewhat dry and jargon-laden. It also meanders around, somewhat at random.
The book has opening and closing chapters which generally talk about the place and its works, with specific chapters in the middle covering the various departments of the Natural History Museum - animals, plants, minerals, etc. Fortey meanders between revealing elements of the research behind the secret, scientist-based half of the Natural History Museum, and describing its history, both in terms of the building and its originators, and various colourful workers that passed through its doors. He conveys very well the passion, dedication and eccentricities that are consistent themes for everyone who works tirelessly on cataloguing the organic world. The people do come alive, with Fortey's close descriptions of their appearance and characters, even if at times his words seem a little overly dramatic and the act therefore a little desperate to make everyone appear interesting.
His description of the science is less successful, and he seems defensive as to the importance of the work of the place, and nostalgic for a bygone era when there may well have been more scientific freedom, money and influence, but not necessarily nearly as high quality of science. Rather than demonstrate by clear, exciting examples why this work really is important, Fortey unfortunately conveys some of the tedium of the field, and I did find myself struggling through this book somewhat, and feeling that it was too long (even though the book isn't particularly lengthy). I also feel that Fortey missed some tricks with the structure. It just felt that he didn't really plan too much how he would structure the book, and just wing it. There were times when I felt he was trying to write two books simultaneously - one about the science of the place, and the the other of its history and people. And the seams between these two worlds showed constantly and were rather ugly. I also wish that the real star of the show, the building itself, could have been given a more prominent role, and been the main topic to knit together everything else. The building does sound fascinating, rambling and vast, but maps really should have been provided, and would have made the place come alive for me, rather than just hear in text about yet another corridor or another turret and have no clue where such places were, and having them all blend together frustratingly in my mind.
I have loved the Natural History Museum since childhood, and was so excited when this book arrived, but although I finished the book (eventually) because of the anecdotes and colourful people described in it, as well as a small subset of the scientific passages, I was hoping for so much more.
Book Review - Rated
Condition is a s good as new, not dog-eared or folded pages or broken spine, great!
Fortey-fying but with an aftertaste - Rated
Dr Fortey's latest (Dry Store Room No. 1) is a mixed bag. It is introduced as an idiosyncratic account of London's natural Historyand Museum, based on Fortey's own career and that it certainly is. He evokesthe changes over that time with wistful nostalgia, and narrates some memorable anecdotes of those who toiled there, from the famous like Owen and Barbellionto the obscure, playing to the stereotype of the unworldly eccentric specialist. I wonder if a woman would have been quite so prepared to entertain by celebratingthis male dominated, hierarchical and tenured institution, though Fortey hascelebrated some impressive female achievements. As usual Fortey is at his best giving readable but informed accounts of scientific discovery. He is at his worst indulging in some rather juvenile wordplay. The excellent photographs are let down by poorly produced text illustrations and a tawdry cover.
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