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A review by savage_book_review
Diddly Squat: Home to Roost by Jeremy Clarkson
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
2.0
Well, here we are again. Another year, another Clarkson book to add to the collection. Only this time it was a Christmas present so I didn't spend my own hard-earned cash on it. But yep, still a sucker.
I think what gets me is the books seem to be getting thinner, and there are more and more blank pages, pages with illustrations (albeit still beautifully drawn ones) rather than the content you've paid for and, this year, a shed load of advertising of his previous books at the back (which, as we've previously established, I already own) followed by yet more empty pages. It's getting to the point where it feels like I would just be better off buying the newspaper of a weekend as it'd be better value for money!
The articles themselves are fine; while I've given up on the idea that they will be as humorous as they were in days gone by, there are a couple of moments which induce a light giggle, and he does actually raise some properly good points about the impact of political decisions on farming. There is an article which mentions that there are 'no death duties on farmland' and I was hoping that the book might extend enough to cover his involvement in the protests against the new Government's decision to change this (driven by professional curiosity), but alas not. So, yet again, there's a hook for me to get the next one. Likewise, only when you get to the very last article does he mention that he's bought a pub, so the adventures of The Farmer's Dog will also have to wait.
As a result, the majority of the articles don't feel very personal, which again detracts from the whole point of my reading. I like hearing about his triumphs and failures, his schemes and successes, and his take on life. There is even one article in here that is essentially a car review - it mentions the farm briefly at the start, but that's it. Which brings me back to my argument that, if he's writing a weekly column and this is the best they can do to pull together his writings about the farm, surely it would be better if they went back to the 'World According to Clarkson' days and just put together a compendium of all his articles from the year?
It is worth a read though, and I'm very grateful to my brother and sister-in-law for buying it for me. And it gets me off and running for 2025!
I think what gets me is the books seem to be getting thinner, and there are more and more blank pages, pages with illustrations (albeit still beautifully drawn ones) rather than the content you've paid for and, this year, a shed load of advertising of his previous books at the back (which, as we've previously established, I already own) followed by yet more empty pages. It's getting to the point where it feels like I would just be better off buying the newspaper of a weekend as it'd be better value for money!
The articles themselves are fine; while I've given up on the idea that they will be as humorous as they were in days gone by, there are a couple of moments which induce a light giggle, and he does actually raise some properly good points about the impact of political decisions on farming. There is an article which mentions that there are 'no death duties on farmland' and I was hoping that the book might extend enough to cover his involvement in the protests against the new Government's decision to change this (driven by professional curiosity), but alas not. So, yet again, there's a hook for me to get the next one. Likewise, only when you get to the very last article does he mention that he's bought a pub, so the adventures of The Farmer's Dog will also have to wait.
As a result, the majority of the articles don't feel very personal, which again detracts from the whole point of my reading. I like hearing about his triumphs and failures, his schemes and successes, and his take on life. There is even one article in here that is essentially a car review - it mentions the farm briefly at the start, but that's it. Which brings me back to my argument that, if he's writing a weekly column and this is the best they can do to pull together his writings about the farm, surely it would be better if they went back to the 'World According to Clarkson' days and just put together a compendium of all his articles from the year?
It is worth a read though, and I'm very grateful to my brother and sister-in-law for buying it for me. And it gets me off and running for 2025!