This is a marvellously intense and sombre novel. It describes the obsessive love-hate realtionship between two very different men, Leonard Radcliffe and Victor Tolson - a relationship at the same time cruelly brutal and painfully tender. Its description of passion as destruction is one that will haunt the reader for a very long time. A great book.

A coal miner's son in the 1940s wins a scholarship to go to grammar school and with it a chance to escape the poverty and narrowness of his upbringing. However, after his graduation he still feels tied to the family and community he came from and at the same time he is estranged from almost everyone in it. He struggles to fulfil his obligations and find meaning and purpose for himself.

When I read my own synopsis of the book it sounds boring and introspective. It is not like that at all. The story is engaging, the prose compelling and the book as a whole, thoroughly memorable. One of the best Booker Prize winners of all. The atmosphere of the book is a little gloomy and the ending is not one that tries to resolve all problems. The book is a portrait of a child and young man caught between two worlds.

Some people may find the very detached third person style of the writing distracting. For example Mr and Mrs Saville are referred to as "his father" and "his mother" when "he" in the same sentence refers to someone other than Colin. This caused me momentary confusion on a few occasions.

When you compare the relative happiness of Colin and his younger brother Stevie its tempting to put this book in the same tradition as Great Expectations and Jude the Obscure where its wrong for working class people to aspire to a higher education and an improvement in conditions. This is not the overall impression of this book. Saville's and Colin's apirations are valid.

By the way if its not available on Amazon.com try Amazon UK its definitely in print there.

This book was highly recommended to me by various people, and it blew me away within minutes of receiving it. I was starting to design the suspension for our solar car and skipped straight to that chapter where it explained at just the right level all the terms and details needed, and discussed in more depth many of the different solutions and materials used by various teams. The book is extreemely well written and easy to read. This is a must have for anyone interested in solar cars, and even most anyone interested in how things work or cars in general.

A really useful guide, which I use while studying at Bristol University, England, A must for anybody studying a small business module!

Very well organized. The information is easily accessible and browseable. A little more detail on locations of trails in each area would be good (i.e. a general map for each area), maybe with GPS coordinates...
In any case a must if you live in South California.

I look for three things in guidebooks. 1. Advice that won't get me lost. 2. Information on stuff I didn't know about before. 3. A sign of wit or humor. All of these matter, and I'm happy to say they're all abundantly presented in this book. Compared to a lot of the regional mt. biking books, this one is superior. The trail directions are clear, the histories & backgrounds are enlightening, and best of all, it's not boring or geeky. The maps are good too; unlike other books, they have a new map for each new route, instead of cramming three routes onto one dinky page. I also get the feeling that these authors worked a little harder than a lot of guidebook writers, who seem to hit one area then try to milk four rides out of one trail. In contrast, this book seems to cover a vast area with a lot more discrimination. The rides I've done so far have been fun and easy to follow. What more can you ask?

We recently traveled through Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia and found this guidebook practically useless and certainly frustrating--definitely not worth its weight. We have used other LPs in the past and found them to be at least adequate but this one doesn't even rate that well. It lacked many important details--such as the time/distances between many points, availability of various transportation options and routes, decent maps--the list goes on and on. Even though prices change often and currencies fluctuate, even a vague idea of prices (is it $10 or $100??) would have been quite useful to help us plan better. Although we ran into many people all 'armed' with the LP, they all had the same complaints.

This book is an adequate guide but it needs improvement in several areas. I used this book during Janurary and February of 2000 when I traveled through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. Last year I used the Lonley Planet-India and found it was much better than Southeast Asia. Here are the weaknesses. 1. The numbers of the locations on the maps should be used in the text describing the location. This would grealy improve you ability to plan your day or route. 2. Maps should be improved. I would be willing to spend a few dollars more for better maps. 3. Hotel, restaurant, etc. names are not printed in bold type. This makes it more difficult to use. 4. It would be very helpful to grade the sites with a priority to reduce the time one spends reading fine print and get on with seeing the country. When I return to this part of the world next winter I will try to find additional books to correct these weaknesses.

I travelled through Thailand, Philippines and Hong Kong using this book. I initially bought this book with weight in mind. I did not want to carry three more LPs along with the other country books (LP Taiwan, Japan). Although much of the information needed to survive was written in the book, it certainly did lack the detailed maps and background information needed to have a care-free journey. SOmetime it certainly was a struggle , especially in Thailand. The Thailand Section prices were extremely outdated. Even in the height on the "asian economic flu", I had to triple the prices listed. The Hong Kong section was adequate, but HK is an efficient and easily travelled city. Of the three, I found the Philippine section the best, but some of the hotel quality ratings are out dated. Please do not stay at the Hotel Mercedes in Cebu!