I read a review of the book in a industry magazine and it described it as useful for a professional financial advisor, as the title also implies. It turned out to be a pretty basic educational book with general but basic financial information. A good book for a beginner or someone who is just beginning to break into the financial services industry, but not necessarily for a seasoned professional.

For me, there are only two Davids in the heady world of the Kingfishers - Boag and Watmough - and although I'm more a fan of the latter (I find his work more thorough) this book is a pleasant trawl through the life of one of England's greatest Kingfishers, the larger-than-life Henry VII. Whilst his prose may not be as descriptive as Watmough's, Boag still unearths some gems about the roly-poly Tudor womaniser which one might not have seen elsewhere. I was most impressed at Boag having unearthed the fact that Henry fashioned himself some wading gaters out of pigskin, and laced them with the hair of Anne of Cleeves. The usual stories are in there as well, including the famous "pulling a 19lb pike out of the Thames" (although I notice the weight of the fish differs somewhat from that mentioned in Watmough's version of events) - and the whimsical tale of fishing for sticklebacks in Barrowbrook Stream when Henry was a small child. I'd say this was a good read for those without the time to delve deeper into this facinating subject.

As with the vast majority, but not all, books that bite off huge taxonomic groups this one fails to provide detailed updated information on this group but does provide an overview and excellent illustrations. If you desire more than the basics purchase Johnsgard's books or some other title that limits its treatment. If its the basics that you desire its worth the money.

Alien threat from another time causes an agent of the Empire to go on a quest to save humanity. Lots of historical and fighting detail, so if you like that sort of thing, this book will probably mean more to you. I thought the characters were generally shallow and their motives for many things either too transparent or totally opaque-- it felt like a larger book that never managed to get fully developed. Too bad, because there were some flashes of interesting plot.

A lot of our Sci-fi books look at alien invasion in the current time. What if aliens had invaded in the past and been defeated? Aulus Perennius is a roman imperial spy who is recruited by a mysterious person to help track down and destroy a small group of aliens who have landed in the Roman Empire.

Drake tells a good fast paced story within a well researched Roman Empire setting which gives the book a good authentic feel. He avoids the worst excesses of ray-gun sci-fi, while introducing comic elements such as an early christian cult who try a little too hard to worship the cruxicifiction, a displaced allosaurus who has a taste for donkeys and a nerve wracking naval battle in a hundred year old ship which is ready to fall apart.

A highly enjoyable read which won't put too much strain on the brain cells. Good fun!

I too am suprised by the negative reviews.This is a good read combining Roman history and futuristic technology expertly. It isn't an easy thing combining two different generes but Drake pulls it off. Instead of plodding I felt that the story progressed steadily building on top of each new development. The reader identifies with the Roman agent and therefore as he learns more so do you. For Roman buffs there is also a nice twist at the end. I never saw it coming. An enertaining read.

David Bird rightly received many plaudits for his fine series of books describing the Bridge playing antics of the fictional monks of St.Titus Abbey. His Robin Hood series appears to be an attempt to broaden the franchise and, as is often the case, he has brought in others to assist with this while still keeping the David Bird badge on the cover.

In this book, many of the hands were devised by Tim Bourke with the author adding his humour and general style.

This book follows the format of "The Bridge Adventures of Robin Hood" in that most of the hands described take place in a rubber bridge setting and they are of a different character to those of the Abbot series.

I have two reservations about this book. The first is the general tone and quality of the humour. The jokes continue in the same vein as in the first book of the series. An example is the setting in which a bridge playing whore named "French Laura" is referred to as having "gone down" more times than her Bridge partner. I'm afraid that all of this wears a little thin over the course of a book.

The second problem is the way that the settings are described. Of course, the legend of Robin Hood is far from being historical truth and the author must be given plenty of leeway but when he refers to real historical characters and events and misplaces them by 100 years it does work to break the suspension of disbelief necessary for full enjoyment of the book.

Fans of the author's other humour run the risk of disappointment with this book.

Because of those issues, I cannot really recommend this book it falls some way short of the standard of Bird's better known series and as bridge humour, it is below par.

I have tremendous respect for family tradition, heirlooms, and history, and I really wanted to like this book, but I just found it too confusing. I'm not convinced that the cumulative text approach was the best way to go here, and with the unexplained pictorial flash-forwards in between the descriptions of each generation's connection to the wooden bird, well... I just began to get a headache. I can only imagine how a child would react to this book...

Don't buy this book. Half (160 of 320 pages) is devoted to material on behavior and general characteristics, that is too simplified for a biologist (or veteran birder) and too detailed for some one seeking identification of new species. The identification sections show 7 birds per page, without size or habitat perspective. The illustrations are accurate to the extent of my observations, and range maps are shown on the ID pages. The print is about 6 point, and I simply could not read it in the field. The authors are obviously expert and anxious to please, but this book will not please anyone.