Reviews and Comments

Comprehensive and clear

Clearly written, interesting throughout, and heavily referenced without being too dry. I like that he somehow manages to end on a positive note, despite the (appropriate) downers in the first few sections.

Would highly recommend to anyone on this planet who plans to eat food in the future.

Clearly written and very accessible, but a bit simplistic in places — it’s a bit of a stretch to go from covering the analogue behaviour of semiconductors through to designing a 32-bit memory without skipping over some things.

Good book! Gives a good general overview of the state of the insect and bird populations, and dives into a number of specific examples. Includes references and further reading.

Sometimes the poetic sections describing how nice birds are, are a little long.

Bit simplistic, but a quick read and the pictures are nice.

Comprehensive discussion of all cave areas in northern England, with example caves to illustrate the development and hydrology of caves in each area. Nice photos, with particularly useful comparisons of sinks and resurgences in dry and flood conditions. Nice maps.

Bit of a big read though.

Interesting and relevant, and some nice pictures. Not too dense, but not too light on detail. Excellent use of ‘further reading’ boxes to point to references.

Interesting, pitched at the right level for general interest (plus a bit more) and has nice pictures. A quick read.

The photos are mildly entertaining/riling. The words don’t add much.

A comprehensive overview of various areas of the science around caves and the landscape in the Yorkshire Dales. With the exception of chapter 3 (glaciology) I found it very accessible. Each chapter has comprehensive (separate) referencing.

Comprehensive, clear, balanced, approachable and easily digestible.

Some interesting moments, but largely uninteresting to me overall and the infrequent low-level sexism was a bit offputting.

A fairly interesting overview of the Pennine dales, their culture, geology, history, etc. Quite dated now, but interesting to see how things have changed (the M6 has been built, for example) and how many of Raistrick’s predictions about the future have or have not come true.

A good synoptic book about lead mining in the Pennines, from Derbyshire up to Northumberland. It covers a wide time period, from the initial post-Roman mining partnerships up to the age and decline of the large lead mining companies around the time of the first world war. Techniques and their refinement, and the social, economic and welfare aspects of lead mining are also given good coverage.

The book is accessible to a non-specialist audience. It’s dry at times, but generally quite readable.

An interesting, well written collection of experiences, all tied together so they flow nicely and build on one another. The narration sometimes strayed into the transcendental, which was a bit odd, but quickly came back to reality.