I am a big fan of obituaries and I'm not really sure why I was disappointed in this book. The subjects are mostly British eccentrics whose obituaries appeared in the Daily Telegraph. There are at least 3 more volumes in the series and maybe they are more interesting but these were sort of repetitive in their eccentricity. ( )

This collection of the lives of memorable individuals was often entertaining and never morbid. As an American I didn't understand all of the terminology and abbreviations, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment. And while I wished more than a few times that I'd known some of these characters personally, all in all it felt too long, like too many obits were included. It took me a very long time to finish. I'd recommended reading it in small doses, or picking ones to read at random, rather than reading straight through like I did. ( )