No such thing as a bad review?

It's often said there is no such thing as a bad review of a book, but sometimes reviewers comments can cut to the bone - especially when THEY get it wrong. So often there is no way to make any comments back - until now that is!

It seems in recent years that reviewers think it almost obligatory to make pithy, 'put-down' comments about books they review. It's like they feel they have to say something nasty about it. I really don't mind any reviewer making constructive criticism - as long as they are accurate!

A few years ago we had one reviewer in Aeroplane make some very picky, pedantic comments about one large book we had published. He then went on to say that this book had, in his words, a 'four part index' that he thought was strangely structured. Only problem there was, we had put an index that was divided into Part A through to Part E sections, and where I went to school A, B, C, D and E makes a FIVE part index!

Recently I had a similar thing in a review in Flypast magazine in which they reviewed my 'Memphis Belle - Dispelling the Myths'. Overall, it's a good review; but... see for yourself!

Memphis Belle - Dispelling the Myths, Graham Simons and Harry Friedman, GMS Enterprises, 536pp. illus, hbk, £60.00 - On the inside of the dust jacket, the authors pledge that their book is free of "sloppy journalistic practises" [sic] and then issue their own tosh: "Memphis Belle was THE most important aircraft of World War Two!" (Their capitals...) Put this behind you and this blockbuster of a book deals in exceptional detail with the many facets of the Belle', the wartime bomber, the 91st Bomb Group and Bassingbourn, the morale-boosting US tour, the William Wyler 'documentary' of 1944, the David Puttnam movie of 1990 and the politics of the surviving airframe. (She is now where should be, a national icon in the care of a national institution - ED.) The amount of material presented here is exceptional and the book is an unprecedented homage to a single aircraft, stacked with documents, illustrations and diagrams, and at just over a penny a page, it represents very good value.

From that - I make two comments; firstly the 'Tosh' allegation. If they had actually read the book, they would see why we said in our opinion we regard the Memphis Belle as the most important aircraft of World War Two. The discussion of that point starts on page 504 - as a conclusion of 503 pages of cold, non-opinioned primary source documentation - but I suppose that the reviewer thinks that as researchers and authors we are not allowed an opinion!

The second point is the reviewer arithmetical skills - the book is £60.00 and has 536 pages.... how I was taught that is just over 10 pence a page - 11.19 pence per page to be precise - not 'just over a penny a page'!

Ah well, those that can, do - and clearly those that cannot become book reviewers!