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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
Thank you Emma for giving me this book, and as promised here’s the review!
I thought it was highly informative and incredibly interesting, especially for someone like me who hoovers up facts like a well... hoover and spits them back out to people who are either willing or unwilling. For example, I bet you didn’t know that Bolivia has a Llama on their flag or the name ‘Union Jack’ originated from the jackstaff of a ship; I didn’t even know a jackstaff was a thing. I could literally go on but then you need to read the book yourself to get these snazzy facts that I now have. Mwhaha...
Marshall’s style is incredibly easy to read and explains things in just the right detail so you’re not entirely in the deep end for any novices (like me) yet doesn’t get repetitive, so it certainly would be suitable for anyone interested in learning more about history and well flags.
However some times I did feel that these facts and countries were just randomly thrown together just because he had these facts in the back of his brain and wanted to put them in a book. This wasn’t constant but there were certain points I was thinking ‘Huh?!?’. In particular Marshall mentioned something about beards showing tradition which was incredibly randomly placed and added absolutely nothing to the background of the flag or the country (in my humble opinion anyway). There were also parts that seemed added just because, like at the end of the book the International Flag of Planet Earth had only a couple of small paragraphs randomly inserted within the UN part. It didn’t seem fully necessary, and was kind of confusing as it didn’t fit at all, although admittedly what was there was interesting.
This is me just being picky now but there were a couple of sentence mistakes I.e words that shouldn’t have been there or missing words as well which was a shame but it didn’t detract from the book at all though; just annoying.
There was also only one page in the middle with the flag photos and because I’m no expert on flags I had to constantly keep on flicking back to that middle page to see what he meant -I mean that is a minor bug bear but it was a bit of a hassle and meant that I cracked the spine a LOT (anyone who knows me know I have a weird issue with cracking spines)
So, overall I thought it was a pretty decent book and I have learnt a lot (and enjoyed reading it too) with lots of highly interesting facts and one of my all time favourite quotes now: “How can you govern a country with 246 different types of cheese?” -De Gaulle.
I thought it was highly informative and incredibly interesting, especially for someone like me who hoovers up facts like a well... hoover and spits them back out to people who are either willing or unwilling. For example, I bet you didn’t know that Bolivia has a Llama on their flag or the name ‘Union Jack’ originated from the jackstaff of a ship; I didn’t even know a jackstaff was a thing. I could literally go on but then you need to read the book yourself to get these snazzy facts that I now have. Mwhaha...
Marshall’s style is incredibly easy to read and explains things in just the right detail so you’re not entirely in the deep end for any novices (like me) yet doesn’t get repetitive, so it certainly would be suitable for anyone interested in learning more about history and well flags.
However some times I did feel that these facts and countries were just randomly thrown together just because he had these facts in the back of his brain and wanted to put them in a book. This wasn’t constant but there were certain points I was thinking ‘Huh?!?’. In particular Marshall mentioned something about beards showing tradition which was incredibly randomly placed and added absolutely nothing to the background of the flag or the country (in my humble opinion anyway). There were also parts that seemed added just because, like at the end of the book the International Flag of Planet Earth had only a couple of small paragraphs randomly inserted within the UN part. It didn’t seem fully necessary, and was kind of confusing as it didn’t fit at all, although admittedly what was there was interesting.
This is me just being picky now but there were a couple of sentence mistakes I.e words that shouldn’t have been there or missing words as well which was a shame but it didn’t detract from the book at all though; just annoying.
There was also only one page in the middle with the flag photos and because I’m no expert on flags I had to constantly keep on flicking back to that middle page to see what he meant -I mean that is a minor bug bear but it was a bit of a hassle and meant that I cracked the spine a LOT (anyone who knows me know I have a weird issue with cracking spines)
So, overall I thought it was a pretty decent book and I have learnt a lot (and enjoyed reading it too) with lots of highly interesting facts and one of my all time favourite quotes now: “How can you govern a country with 246 different types of cheese?” -De Gaulle.
informative
fast-paced
informative
slow-paced
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
A quick read through the world of vexillology. One of many good quotes comes from Britain’s leading vexillologist, Graham Bartram, “Over the last few years I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t actually matter what’s on the flag. One of the mistakes we make is assuming that what’s on the flag is what makes it powerful . . . it’s what it means to someone, and that it belongs to them, and say perhaps to ten million other people, which gives it the power.”
A brief but in-depth look at flags and countries all over the world... well worth a read especially for a lot of the histories & conflicts around the world that I didn't know about before.
funny
informative
fast-paced
Kinda mad that he acted like Canada doesn't even exist, but whatever. Really well done, thoroughly researched. Truly interesting read, I enjoyed it very much and learned a lot!
Undoubtedly, it was an entertaining and informative read, it kept me hooked throughout and I learnt some new things about regions of the world and their history. However, as noted in many other reviews, it must be read with a critical eye, as the author asserts many of his own opinions and biases alongside fact.