It is suitable for both popular and fine taste. I'm sure you'll have a more-than-pleasant reading experience and a more-than-enough understanding of the hypotetical political leader's hypotetical idiotic behavior in a hypothetical political system of a real English-speaking country. Although it is seemingly a novelized British drama, the printed version of "Yes Prime Minister" makes excellent use of the edge of novel to tell the story. The expression of individual's opinion of a event surely presents how single-minded or even absent-minded the characters are. Even more interesting, there are handwritten notes of the subjects, newspaper cutting of their events, and script of media interview which fully demonstrates the moronic ideas and performances of James Hacker as well as the tactical handling of his boss by Sir Humphrey Appleby. And the intervention, most of the time in a literary perspective and untimely, by Benard Wooley further makes the team more a laughing stock.

If you ask my opinion, in the fullest of time, by means of thorough investigation of both the pros and cons, and not to put too fine a point, it is justifiable to a certain extent to consume a certain amount of time to literally, if not semanticaly to digest the information and mark the word by a person who is in this review using the perpendicular pronoun, I.

Were the "Yes Minister" and "Yes Prime Minister" series NOT part of television immortality, this book would STILL succeed, stand out in its own right as one of the classic political satires.

The authors' conceit is that we are in the year 2050 (or so), and Sir Humphrey's dithering protege, the ineffectual Bernard, is now an eminence grise who has taken it upon himself to compile the diaries of the legendary PM Jim Hacker. Hacker, whose populist, extreme-middle-of-the-road politics make him more a John McCain figure than a Tony Blair, does score the odd coup, as when he foils a nasty invasion of a former British colony. But by and large he is at the mercy of Humphrey Appleby and his bureacratic machine. As he tells he diary, Government has the engine of a Volkswagen and the brakes of a Rolls-Royce. This and other universal truths ensure "Yes Prime Minister" will endure for the ages, and it is a pity this work is out of print. My favorite moment is where Hacker, on the verge of ascending the "greasy pole" of parliamentary politics to become PM, campaigns against a European directive seeking to standardize the recipe for sausages. "I am up to my neck in this Euro-sausage business," he remarks. "Not literally, we hope - Ed" is the parenthetical aside.

Like many tie-ins with British television shows,_YPM Diaries_ is a print version of the show, written in the voice of the characters. And , as is also the apparent British custom, it includes material previously aired. In fact, its chapters are the televised episodes themselves.

But this book goes well beyond the scripts of the shows. It definitely recognizes the difference in the two media and comes up with a lot of new material unique to the book itself. One of the cleverest inclusions is that of handwritten notes between principle characters. For instance, there are whole dialogues in this correspondence format between Humphrey and the Prime Minister which haven't appeared in any other media. Also, the diaries themselves include a lot of original material which amplify points made in the televised versions.

Aside from being an absolutely smashing read, this is an excellent resource for the student of British politics. From this book I got a lot of ideas for term papers which impressed my British politics professor.

I think, though, that the most valuable thing this book will impart is a kind of lens through which to view British politics. I don't mean to oversell the utility of the work, but especially for the American viewer uninitiated in the ways of the parliamentary form of government, YM/YPM truly helps one see how things get done--or undone--in Her Majesty's Government.

if you like your humor understated and your wit dry (droll as humphrey would no doubt say), this book will be the best you have ever read. and it will stay that way.

the british civil service had a unique characteristic - it was not directly under the control of the political masters. this gave rise to a very interesting situation where the civil service and her majesty's servants were working towards entirely opposite ends. to the civil servant, imaginative and bold were the worst criticisms. change in any form was looked down upon - as we say here - "if it aint broke, dont fix it". the politicians (especially those new in office like hacker who weren't cynical enough not to care one way or the other) often came to office with lofty ideals of revolutionizing society and being the forefathers of a better tomorrow.

behind the curtain of civility, they (the civil servants and politicians) fought battle after battle. the art of realpolitik meant entirely diffent things to both sides. many of the battles went to the civil servants (Lord Humphrey being among the shrewdest) but at times Hacker (James Hacker - first minister and later Prime Minister) prevailed with his low cunning and fast realization that not everything was what it looked like.

each chapter is a revelation - the next time you read the news, you will see it in an entire different perspective after reading this book. action and motive are so far removed as to make the connection entirely unimaginable and the amount of time spent trying to do nothing seems at times appalling.

if slapstick is your cup of tea, stay away from this book. the humor is often less in what is said than in how it is said. the laughs never end. i have read this book 5 times now. the first time, you enjoy the humor for what it is. the second time, you start enjoying the situations, the broader picture, the political moves,and the sheer genius of humphrey. the third time you see how the characters develop. by the fourth time, it's like you're on crack. you cant explain it - you know what is going to happen next, you know the exact words. you still have to read it again. and again. and again.

Sir Humphrey Appleby, Sir Bernard Wooley, and Rt Honorable James Hacker... this is simply the most outstanding work of humorous fiction that lampoons the British civil service and politicians alike.

Based on the diaries of the minister, the series has been converted to a wonderful teleseries, where the casting has been done by someone who truly loves the book and has imbibed the characters so completely, that on later readings of the book, the television characters appear to the mind.

The book is a series of short stories, which expose the careful interplay between the British civil service and the British politicians, the role played by media, the foriegn office, the various departments etc. It is a wonderful set of stories, where the English is truly masterful!! I remember reading each story with a pencil and dictionary while writing the GRE many years ago,... this and its sequel, yes prime minister, are books which should receive their space in your cabinet.

I dont know why this says - Limited availability, these books are easily procured in India where they are being printed.

Yes Prime Minister is that rarest of books. It is based on a TV show, itself hilarious, and yet manages to be even better than the show. Whereas the show descends into slapstick and exaggerated humour at times, the book does not miss a step. The plots are wonderfully woven, the characters all superbly crafted and uniformly shallow and the writing is impeccable - there are never two words when one will do, and the characters will stay with you long after the first (of many) reading(s). I suspect in years to come, when some distance can be put between the book and it's times, it will be recognised as one of the all time comedy classics. Buy it now!

The word biodiversity often conjures up visions of tropical rain forests, and for good reason. They contain more species than anywhere else in the world. But, as this lavishly illustrated and well written book attests there is a great deal of biodiversity in the U.S. In fact, U.S. is the richest country in terms of numbers of species for several groups inclulding freshwater mussels and crayfishes. The authors take us through the groups of plants and animals in the U.S. with a combination of natural history descriptions, photographs, maps, and when appropriate, data summaries. The maps are really noteworthy, because they add a great deal to the book both visually and in terms of understanding the patterns. The book is well worthy the cost just for the photos and maps. Later chapters address the patterns of rarity, threats, and protection strategies. In terms of style and content, it rests between David Wilcove's, The Condor's Shadow and Terrestrial Ecoregions of North America: A Conservation Assessment by Taylor Ricketts et al. Precious Heritage belongs on the bookshelves of everyone interested in and concerned about biodiversity in the U.S.

This book should be on the shelf of environmentalist interested in biodiversity as well as professional conservation biologists. The authors provide a well written introduction to our understanding of biodiversity and the ways that we measure it. They also provide overviews of the geographic trends in biodiversity, the current threats to this diversity, and offer a perspective on the ways that we proactively maintain this "precious heritage". The book also provides a perspective that allows professional conservation biologists to see their work in a large scale biogeographic framework, and provides some of the data needed to allow scientists to move from writing epitaphs for dying species to proactively conserving diversity.

This book portrays the political drama with an excellent sense of humour.

Like the companion book for the later series, _Yes, Prime Minister_, _The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister_ follows in the British tradition of committing filmed episodes to paper. New fans to the series who know it only from the North American video release will actually find wholly 'new' material here; more episodes find their way into this volume than are currently available on VHS. But clearly, if you're looking for behind-the-scenes information or a discussion of _YM_ in the context of 1980's Britain, you've come to the wrong book.

No, this is a book for people who are so enamored of the dialogue, style, and even the issues of the television series that they want the same stories retold with a new twist. After reading this book, it's easy to see why there were enough such people that this book made the bestseller lists in England.

Even if you've seen every episode five times, this is fabulous stuff to add to your print library. Jonathan Lynn and Anthony Jay clearly have an ear for dialogue and a head for politics. They also are smart enough to put just enough new material in the book to reward diehard fans. By retelling each episode from the perspective of the Minister, they add a level of humor usually not present in the series: that of insight into Hacker's genuine opinions. To be sure, the book's basic paradigm is to keep all the dialogue from the filmed episode, with Hacker quoting exactly what the other characters say, but there's enough new expository material to set up those quotes that fans of the show will feel they're getting more than just a print regurgitation of the series.

Indeed, this twist proved so successful with the British readership that the authors decided to push forward and make a second edition, _The Complete Diaries of a Cabinet Minister_, which includes more pictures, more graphical elements (such as handwritten notes between Humphrey and the Minister), and I think even one more episode, that add value to the solid core found in this edition.

Which edition should you get? Given the out-of-print status of the volume, I'd say you should get what Amazon can find for you. If you liked the series, you won't be disappointed with either.

It was hard enough even in the seventies for American audiences to fully 'get' _Yes, Minister_. Enjoyment of the show is greatly enchanced by at least a moderate familiarity with the British system of government, and gets funnier the more you know about Whitehall. Thirty years on, a lot of the political issues about which the characters speak are all but indecipherable on this side of the pond.

Yet, I adore this show. It's _Benson_ on steroids.

The relationships between the characters are so incredibly well drawn, the acting so superb, that, while helpful, knowledge about the specific issues debated by Humphrey and Hacker is secondary. Even if one doesn't quite understand what's so important about the "cod quota" or the "vehicle licensing center in Swansea", you laugh anyway because the acting's just that good.

I fell in love with this show while taking a British politics class, and am still convinced to this day that there is no single instructional material so able to give non-Britons a sense of the difference between their government and the British one.

What's interesting about the cassette version of _Yes, Minister_ (though not of _Yes, Prime Minister_) is that it was a capture of the radio version of the show, not simply the soundtrack from the televised episode. As a result there are many subtle differences, especially in the first episode, between the video and casette releases. For my money, the casette version is by far the better acted.