Unfortunately, this is one of the most poorly written and edited non-fiction books I have ever read. I say unfortunately, because the subject of this book is first rate biography fodder, having been deeply involved in British colonial wars of East Africa, leading commando actions against the Germans during WWI in East Africa and the Middle East, and working as an OSS agent in WWII--as well as being a hunter of epic proportions and something of an ornithologist.

Capstick chooses to concentrate on the "legend," eschewing any research, preferring to simply cite from Meinertzhagn's own diaries at length rather then take the time to provide any corroborating documentations. This is a shame since it is left to to the reader to decide what part of the tale is true and what is not--no small task given that Meinertzhagen destroyed a large portion of his diaries in 1942, which raises the possibility of revisionism on his part in the later years of his life. Not to mention the remarks in his diaries regarding T.E. Lawrence which have been ably refuted by historians, nor the recent news that at least one of his major ornithological "discoveries" was in fact a fraud on his part.

Capstick clearly was unable to organize information in any sensible manner, and his editor (if there actually was any), certainly didn't bother to help. For example, tacked onto the end of a lengthy paragraph about Meinertzhagen's dislike for other races is the only mention of his first marriage!

No, instead Capstick presents a rambling accounting the juiciest of events from the diaries, detracting from these by interjecting his own barely coherent diatribes against "greens" as well as numerous instances of the "I know just how Dick felt, I too..." variety. Clearly Capstick has an almost hero-worship of his subject, and thus totally waffles around Meinertzhagen's clearly racist views and blood lust. On page 220 he states as much: "This complex man's psychological makeup is not the point of this book. His glorious adventures and cunning bravery are." This is all well and fine except that his subject's "adventures" including loads of killing, including an Indian for mishandling his horse.

Meinertzhagen's life was certainly fascinating, but I'd suggest waiting to read about it in a competently researched and written biography, not in this homage.

I stumbled upon this book over Thanksgiving, and thought I would give it a try. I have a great deal of interest in the Expeditionary Forces that left from India during WWI, so I thought this would be a welcome addition towards my understanding of operations in British East Africa. Well to sum it up, it wasnt really. This book is a very superficial biography of Meinertzhagen, using suprisingly very few sources. As noted by earlier reviewers, the book is consistently broken up by narratives of the author's own experiences, which may or may not have anything to do with the story at hand. If you are looking for a serious biography of Meinertzhagen, this is not for you. If you are looking for a light read with no particular substance, this is it.

Capstick's writing style has a tendency to leap forward a lot and he tosses in personal comments about his wife and his own thoughts. I feel this would throw off a novice reader. However, the story of Richard Meinertzhagen is incredible, a true Victorian son, with a life that was filled with danger, travel, big game hunting, perilous adventures we can only dream of and meetings with some of the most influential men in the 20th century. I would have given the book another star, but the writing was haphazard. Meinertzhagen, a service British officers, fought in Africa against the only German general who wasn't defeated, Lettow-Vorbeck. He escaped death on countless occasions, brutally killing many times, with pistol, rifle, bayonet and knobkerrie war club. He served in the Arabian area under Allenby, using his intelligence gathering skills to great advantage for the allies. He survived a ship being torpedoed off the coast of Italy in 1917, over Palistine, his two man plane was shot to pieces by a German fighter, wounding the pilot. Meinertzhagen managed to land the plane and walk from it. He outwitted German intelligence officers on many occasions, once dropping opium laced cigarettes over Turkish lines, the trick worked and when a major British offense began, many Turks were unable to stand or talk. He was an avid Zionist and befreinded T E Lawrence as they struggled to help the Israeli state develope. He debated the Zionist movement with Churchill and lobbied at the Peace treaties in Paris. He was almost killed on the very last day of the war. In the 1930's, after much travel, he met with Ribbontrop and Hitler. On the third visit, Meinertzhagen pocketed a revolver and could have easily used it on Hitler, altering history to no end. When he first met Hitler in Berlin, Hitler greeted him with "Heil Hitler." Not hear of this infamous cry, Meinertzhagen replied "Heil Meinertzhagen". No one was amused in Hitler's chambers. An interesting book to read nonetheless, aside from the late author's flash forward dialogs and comments. A truly unique and interesting man.

Refer to the description that Amazon gives you, "Concise and witty". They do mean CONCISE. The description of restaurants amounts to 1 or 2 sentences describing of each resturant. The description could be about the atmosphere, the reviewer's impression of the waiters, price of the food, or any other random topic the reviewer decides to comment on. There is no consistency on which topic is used for which restaurant. For me, it is useless, because it gives me no idea what's on the menu. They do categorize food by nationality, but that is still not enough information. Italian could mean spagetti and canned sauce or it could mean pumpkin ravioli, portabella mushrooms, balsamic vinegar, roast garlic and/or wood-fired pizza. French could mean heavy on sauces, creams and butter or it could mean nouvelle cuisine. The one good thing about the book is that it gives you maps of where the restaurants are. If you want to locate all the restaurants within a certain walking distance, this book would be good to have. I won't be packing it in my suitcase.

Good categorisation based on cost, location, cuisine types, atmosphere, service. I use it frequently. It doesn't give menus, but you can tell the class of food by price and the brief descriptions.

This book has one over-riding theme repeated constantly: The White Man is always wrong and the Indian is and has always been an innocent victem. I won't list details, but the lack of objectivity and obvious implications to the promote the theme are insulting. Although the book may contain some valuable and useful facts about Native Americans and their lifestyles, it is impossible to determine how authentic any of them are due to the overt propaganda that is being constantly asserted.

A beautiful book that pleases the mind and eyes. Very authoritative and full of historical and anecdotal information relating to the Native Americans. Begins with pre-Columbus and continues through the ages to the 90's. A must read for anyone interested in Native american culture and history. The photographs and illustrations are priceless and well worth the price of the book. Add this to your history collection, younsters enjoy browsing at the wonderful prints of paintings and illustrations. An easy read whose pictures entertain and captivate the imagination.

Mesoamerican archaeology is a little world by itself - I know, because I used to live in it. It has a very cosy relationship with museums and the "art" collectors who buy the objects that are looted from archaeological sites, which lie destroyed, torn into shreds under the forests all over Central America and Mexico. But it has almost no touch with reality any more. The things they say about the ancient Olmec are almost fantasy, because in truth we know so little about these people. Almost all the objects in this book were stolen from Mexico, ripped from the archaeological context that might tell us something about their real meaning. These are probably religious articles - we may never know. But imagine trying to reconstruct the rich life of rennaisance Italy by looking at reliquaries in Catholic churches! If you are still persuaded by the "mysterious Olmec" propaganda spouted by Coe and his looter buddies, go read Flannery & Marcus in the first 2000 issue of the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, and think it over.

The Olmec World is an amazing resource for those who study or have an appreciation of early Mesoamerican Art. At its most basic level The Olmec World is the catalogue of the 1996 Olmec Exhibition at the Art Museum at Princeton University the first comprehensive show of Olmec art in America. Drawing upon nearly all of the major Olmec museum collections in North America from Dunbarton Oaks to Princeton's own expansive holdings, the exhibition also drew heavily from many private collections never before shown to the general public. For instance, John Stokes' amazing collection of ceramic babies and jade masks are showcased in this catalogue. However, almost as impressive as the pictures are the essays in this collection. Michael Coe has done a marvelous job of soliticing and editing a myriad of papers on the mysterious Olmec.

If you wanted to know all about what a wonderful guy the author is and want to see photos of everything he has ever worked on by all means buy this book. If you want good information and clearly written procedures and saftey practices buy another. Here's one example: In a side note unter TIG welding, the author says "Be very careful when welding magneseum, as it can catch fire and not be extinguished by nornal means. Consult Chapter 12 on saftey for more information"

OK- turn to chapter 12...

and there is no information on what to do with a metal fire.

Before anyone tries welding mag engine blocks or wheels or anything they should know that if the part catches fire spraying a normal ABC fire extinguisher will not put it out, that it burns hot enoutgh to cause steel to catch fire, and that spraying water on it can cause an explosion as the fire can be hot enough to split water into hydrogen and Oxygen. This is not mentioned in the book. There are many more cases of the information you need shunted aside for personal anecdotes of the authors or the pages and pages of poor-quality filler photos that show off everything the author has ever worked on.

Don't buy it.

Aside from little details, a very practical book. His coverage of aluminum brazing omitted the fact that it has been in use since before WW2, and on many military aircraft. His aluminum welding and brazing references tend to mix, and might create confusion in choosing fluxes and fillers. The dangerous cobalt blue lenses he mentions are 40 yrs old, and have been superceded by TM Technologies' TM2000 lenses 10 yrs ago.

After having this book (1st ed.) on my shelf for several years, I am compelled to write a review. This book seldom provides answers to any of my NT questions. Recently, after installing a remote disk drive, I encountered a STOP error (fatal error) upon startup. The error message said something about an IRQ problem. The only mention of IRQ in the book's index refers to a single paragraph in the glossary. There was nothing on errors, debugging, system errors, dump files, log files ... anything that would help me understand the problem. This has been my experience every time I open this book. It more likely to infuriate than to inform. However, at nearly 900 pages it does make a good bookend.

I've used this book over the years with enthusiasm. Even though it is somewhat out of date, Norton's books, as always, make it easy to understand what he has to say.

The book did not entertain or inform. I'm sorry I spent my money on it

Let's assume you can ride a bike, but your knowledge stops there. If you are in this situation and are comtempleting riding a bike in order to increase your fitness level, then this is the book for you. This book is a comprehensive look at basic and intermediate level bike riding. Equipment, safety, nutrition and a comprehensive set of training schedules are included in this book. The message in the text is reinforced by the use of humerous illustrations. The only complaint I had about the book it that the beginning rides are 10 miles long, which felt like they were going to kill me! But!, as the author promised, those days rapidly fell behind me and I have quickly increased my fitness level, lost some weight and had fun, all because of this book. Buy it if you are thinking about riding a bike for you health!!

This book has wonderful information and beatiful images but no where in the book does it say what each plate is depicting! Very annoying.

This book was that bad but hey it could be better.I never thought that the story line could be so cunfusing! Jeez the author could have put more effort into it but hey it was a good book in the end but don't hold your breath!

My only complaint about this play is that Shakespeare should have had some dialogues where the characters discussed crucial history before the play opens. Gloucester (murdered or dead before the play but mentioned several times) had tried to usurp Richard's crown too many times. History itself is not sure if Gloucester died or was murdered. Bolingbroke for a while conspired with Gloucester and now sees another oppurtunity to usurp the crown.The virtuous John of Gaunt served Richard with honor and integrity and eventually moved parliament into arresting Gloucester for treason. This would of made John of Gaunt's rages all the more valid. Otherwise this play is outstanding! Richard shows himself to be capable of ruling at times, but gains our contempt when he seizes his the honorable John of Gaunt's wealth. John of Gaunt's final rage in 2.1 is a passage of immense rageful beauty. Also, Shakespeare moves us into strongly suspecting that Richard had Gloucester murdered. However, despite Richard's crime, Shakespeare masterfully reverses our feelings and moves us into having deep pity for Richard when he is deposed. The Bishop of Carlisle (Richard's true friend) provides some powerful passages of his own. I can not overestimate the grace in which Shakespeare increases our new won pity for Richard when Bolingbroke (Gaunt's rightful heir) regains his wealth and the death of Gloucester is left ambiguous. 5.1, when Richard sadly leaves his queen and can see that Henry IV and his followers will eventually divide is a scene of sorrowful beauty. 5.4 is chilling when Exton plots Richard's murder. 5.5 is chilling and captivating when Richard dies but manages to take two of the thugs down with him. The icing on the cake is that Bolingbroke (Henry IV) can only regret his actions and realize that he has gotten himself into a troublesome situation. But that will be covered in "1 Henry IV" and "2 Henry IV." We can easily argue that it is in "Richard II" where we see Shakespeare's mastery of the language at its finest.

The thing with Shakespeare histories is that almost no one reads them, as opposed to his tragedies and comedies. I don't know why that is. The histories that are read are either Henry V (largely due to Branagh's movie), Richard III (because the hunchback king is so over-the-top evil), or the gargantuan trilogy of Henry VI, with the nearly saintly king (at least by Part III) who much prefers contemplating religion and ethics to ruling and dealing with the cabals among his nobles.

So why read a relatively obscure history about a relatively obscure king? Aside from the obvious (it's Shakespeare, stupid), it is a wonderful piece of writing - intense, lyrical, and subtle. Richard II is morally ambiguous, initially an arrogant, callous figure who heeds no warnings against his behavior. Of course, his behavior, which includes seizing the property of nobles without regard for their heirs, leads to his downfall. Nothing in his character or behavior inspires his subjects so he has no passionate defenders when one of the wronged heirs leads a rebellion to depose Richard II. But Richard now becomes a much more sympathetic figure -especially in the scene where he confronts the usurper, Richard acknowledges his mistakes, but eloquently wonders what happens when the wronged subjects can depose the leader when they are wronged. What then of the monarchy, what then of England?

On top of the profound political musings, you get some extraordinarily lyrical Shakespeare (and that is truly extraordinary). Most well known may be the description of England that was used in the airline commercial a few years back... "This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, ..."

If you like Shakespeare and haven't read this play, you've missed a gem.

Richard II was incompetent, wastefully extravagant, overtaxed his nobles and peasants, ignored his senior advisors, and lavished dukedoms on his favorites. His rival, Henry of Bolingbroke (later Henry IV), was popular with the common man and undeservingly suffered banishment and loss of all his property. And yet two centuries later Elizabethans viewed the overthrow of Richard II as fundamentally wrong and ultimately responsible for 100 years of crisis and civil war. Queen Elizabeth's government even censored Shakespeare's play.

Shakespeare masterfully manipulates our feelings and attitude toward Richard II and Bolingbroke. We initially watch Richard II try to reconcile differences between two apparently loyal subjects each challenging the other's loyalty to the king. He seemingly reluctantly approves a trial by combat. But a month later, only minutes before combat begins, he banishes both form England. We begin to question Richard's motivation.

Richard's subsequent behavior, especially his illegal seizure of Bolingbroke's land and title, persuades us that his overthrow is justified. But as King Richard's position declines, a more kingly, more contemplative ruler emerges. He faces overthrow and eventual death with dignity and courage. Meanwhile we see Bolingbroke, now Henry IV, beset with unease, uncertainty, and eventually guilt for his action.

Shakespeare also leaves us in in a state of uncertainty. What is the role of a subject? What are the limits of passive obedience? How do we reconcile the overthrow of an incompetent ruler with the divine right of kings? Will Henry IV, his children, or England itself suffer retribution?

Richard II has elements of a tragedy, but is fundamentally a historical play. I was late coming to Shakespeare's English histories and despite my familiarity with many of his works I found myself somewhat disoriented. I did not appreciate the complex relationships between the aristocratic families, nor what had happened before. Fortunately I was rescued by Peter Saccio, the author of "Shakespeare's English Kings". Saccio's delightful book explores how Shakespeare's imagination and actual history are intertwined.

I hope you enjoy Richard II as much as I have. It is the gateway to Henry IV (Parts 1 and 2) and Henry V, all exceptional plays.