Harry Ritchie

I think I was kidding myself, when I saw a review for this book in a newspaper, that I would be building on my own layman's grasp of grammar if I downloaded a copy. Nope. Mr Ritchie is very informative, and his droll sense of humour helps the subject along, but I think I will continue to subscribe to his theory that I already know how to use grammar, and couldn't care less for labels like subjunctives and gerunds. The opening chapters on a history of language and how we learned English are very dry, and apart from a few snide asides on the ridiculous rules of a few hard-line Victorian grammarians, so are the breakdowns of nouns, determiners, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, adverbs - you get the picture. For a guy who insists that most native English speakers already know all this, if not the fancy terms, then Ritchie certainly devotes a lot of the book to explaining and reiterating how grammar works. Nothing wrong in that - he does exactly what it says on the tin - but not very original either.… (mais)

Having enjoyed the author’s book on visiting the last outposts of the former empire (The Last Pink Bits http://www.librarything.com/work/book/98173943) even if it was a bit of a “me too” on Outposts (Simon Winchester http://www.librarything.com/work/208554) I looked forward to his book on a popular “holiday” destination in Spain.

However, it is just a holiday-journal of middle-aged Lager Louts getting sick-drunk and high on illegal narcotics in Discos on the Costa Bingo. If that is your ideal for a vacation, you may enjoy this book.

I did not.… (mais)