Awful, dull - Don't quit your day job! - Rated 
This book really is dull dull dull. It tries hard at being witty but falls flat on its face.
The author really should stick to what he knows - because fiction is certainly not it!
GRIM GRAMMAR - Rated 
This book was depressing on several fronts: style (NOT funny, as promised); plot - what plot?; padding - it's far too long and windy; but mostly the wince-inducing bad grammar. For example, p.84, '...a mystery to Mrs Clarke and I'. 'Me',not 'I'. You wouldn't say '...a mystery to I', would you? P.207, 'Us Trencoms are...'. 'We', not 'us'. You wouldn't say 'Us are', would you? P.310, '... Trencoms Cheese Shop'. 'Trencom's', surely, and it should be 'Trencom's' all the way through even though 'Cheese Shop' is not mentioned. Sainsbury's has got is right. P.327, 'And nor do I'. Since 'nor' means 'and not', Milton is here virtually writing 'And and I do not'. And so on, for example, Humphrey Trencom dies in 1675 in Chapter 9 and in 1686 (or is it 1685?) on p.339. Perhaps the lost art of proof-reading should be revived. R. Stewart, Stockport
Cheese - Rated 
Despite being not as funny as promised in the blurb, and having quite an obvious ending I really enjoyed this book.
The cheese descriptions in paticular are very good, and made me quite hungry at times.
I would reccomend it to someone who wants to read a book with some substance, but that wont tax your brain too much.
Quite, Quite Lovely. - Rated
I really enjoyed this highly improbable, but highly informative little tale.
It didn't change my life but it was fun to read.
The plot is quite guessable early on but that's not the point because pretty much everyone except the main character knows what is going on anyway, so its fine that the reader is in the loop as well.
It flows well and I didn't feel that it was in any way badly edited, and working in publishing, I can show you more than my share of ones that are.
Not only is this a lovely little story but its full of interesting history and stuffed full of things about Cheese!
Its made me want to explore other subjects and areas and that's all you can really ask from a book isn't it?
Much fun, gentle, playful and in not even slightly gratuitous.
Dull, badly written - a chore to read - Rated
I only slugged my way through this because I was on a flight. Even so the seatback magazine seemed more interesting. I guess this got published because his other historical books have been successful - but didn't an editor or a publisher read it? It's really dreadful. If it wasn't for the gratuitous sex it might have all right for a ten year old, but I am at a loss to know what this book is supposed to be for. It's not comic, it's not interesting...
|
