Gardens of Gertrude Jekyll Book

Disappointing. The tone is dry academic, despite the occasional, almost random use of exclamation points! (Exactly like that one.) Where that might work for a scholarly dissertation, here it takes a history rife with conflict, with echoes up to the present day, and renders it boring. Sometimes the author editorializes, in jarring contrast with the dominant academic style.

It also doesn't work as a literal "traveller's history." There aren't enough maps. References and call backs to earlier history taking place in the same, overlapping, physical location would increase depth and comprehension for an actual traveler. Ireland is not a large country, and I find it interesting that so many of its would-be High-Kings and influential leaders come from the west to fight invaders in the east, and that the north, now a separate country, had such an impact throughout its history long before partition. That's the approach I would take with a history of the country.

Still, it gets two stars for its compact, informative nature. It can't be an easy task to briskly examine nearly two thousand years of history in a relatively short book.

Note: This is a review of the 1993 edition, an updated edition may mitigate some of the criticisms above.