Reviews - Diddly Squat | The StoryGraph

Clarkson is Marmite. You either love him or hate him; either think he's arrogant and sarcastic or witty and clever. I, personally, am a big fan, and he has my type of humour. Whether that's because he was born not far from where I live and we all seem to have the same sense of humour up here, or not, I don't know but I like him nonetheless.

This book is an accompaniment of his Amazon Series Clarkson's Farm and which was also featured in the Sunday Times news column. It is, essentially, those columns. If you have not read them or seen the show, it is basically about Clarkson's exploits as a farmer, something he is totally new at, and the trials and tribulations thereof.

Amongst all the hilarity, mishaps, foibles and faux pas, lies a serious side. That of the life of a modern day British farmer and how the government and the weather do nothing to help. I have spoken to a few farmers since the Amazon show came out and have asked them if they have seen the series. Those that have, in general, like Clarkson, mainly because he is highlighting their plight. When I delve deeper and ask whether it is worth farming nowadays, the consensus is generally a 'no' but they almost always answer as a side note that it is their way of life and that they couldn't do anything else but farming.

So, in short, whether you like him or not I would say that you should read the book - I managed to finish it in a couple of sittings - because even if you don't get the humour or don't like the man, at least you will get to know the plight of farmers in the UK, if even a little bit, and that can only be a good thing, can't it?

stephmcnz's review against another edition

4.0

funny

lausiet's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense slow-paced

smithwinkle's review against another edition

4.5

funny inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

alise0789's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

whippycleric's review against another edition

3.5

funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

I've read a few of Jeremy's books now and this is arguably better than most but still falls into many of the same pit falls as the others.

Let's start with the good things; the humor is spot on, even if you don't agree with his political opinions, most of which I can say I don't, the way he makes fun of bureaucracy, and the left, is on the nose. It’s also remarkedly self-deprecating, something we don’t quite except from him. The pacing is nicely done, along with the structure, separating the book into months of the year is a good idea, on top of that the season breaks and subsequent chapter breaks give each chapter a clear purpose. The writing itself is surprisingly good, Jeremy starts the book by saying he loves writing and it’s clear after many books he has improved in this skill set, I can imagine the editor had some work to do but they’ve done a great job as well so we can bung their contribution into this point as well.

Then let’s get on to the downsides; This book feels like a cash grab, it was clearly written before the release of the TV series given that the main characters from the series besides Clarkson and Lisa were not named in the book. Also, it’s just far too short. Don’t get me wrong, a book doesn’t have to be long to be good, some of my favorite books are short, including the killing fields which is actually referenced in this book, but given they managed an entire amazon series from it I think we could manage more than a 90-minute book. There were one or two snippets of information in the book which weren’t in the TV series which was nice but overall It’s definitely better to watch the TV than read the book in this case. Finally for downsides it’s a collections of newspaper articles again, which just don’t work well as a book due to their repetitiveness.

In summary it’s a fun read and if you have a couple of hours free why not read it, but if you’ve watched the tv show then unless you’re a massive fan just read something else. I’ll give it a 3.5 (7/10) because it is genuinely well written, fun to read, and looking at my previous ratings I can’t give it lower but it’s a low 3.5

More...