I’ve been reading Robbins’ blog for a few years now and have always found what he writes to be interesting and informative, one issue I have is being unable to fully take in what is written on a webpage so when I found out Robbins had converted some of these posts into a book I jumped at the chance to read it and for me it was a million times better on paper. There is something very soothing with his voice, a bit like that Attenborough chap, you get drawn in very quickly and find yourself nodding along to what is being described….in fact I kept thinking “Man, this would work as a documentary series” because the research is impeccable and somehow he has made a subject as dry as the books of Agatha Christie into a riveting discussion.

With a couple of exceptions these chapters seem to have evolved from a book review into a discussion on one subject expertly linking together similar writers and their books. I especially enjoyed The Butler Did It. Or Did He? I haven’t read any of the traditional English Whodunnit novels and this chapter was very inspirational, I might have to check out some of the books that get a mention. There are a few chapters on the world wars and Robbins has dealt with the subject matter very well, I was appreciative of how each chapter ended giving the reader info about how the life’s of the people mentioned played out, I’m always surprised how invested I can get.

There was one chapter that didn’t seem to fit in for me, Rear-View Mirror just didn’t seem to interest me, I’m not really sure why, maybe it’s the fact Robbins moves away from books or that I had never heard of the TV shows getting a mention but I just couldn’t connect with it. By far my favourite was A Life In The Saddle I am a massive fan of Robbins’ Travel/memoir book and this was the sort of experience that would have fit in perfectly, really interesting and highlights his great sense of adventure.

All in all I have thoroughly enjoyed this…not sure what my tbr list is going to make of the many additions that will be going on to it. Everybody should give this a read and then join me in demanding that Robbins starts making documentaries.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2022/06/05/on-the-rim-of-the-sea-a-journey-in-books-by-mike-robbins/