Antony Mason

This was a very enjoyable book. The author has featured islands from across the globe and has included a wide spectrum of islands, from tiny tourist spots to island nations such as Papua New Guinea. I really appreciated the fact that in one volume I could enjoy photos of tropical destinations alongside wildlife preserves and European hamlets. The author has also included a brief but interesting summary of each island, it's people and it's history.

I've used the Eyewitness Top 10 guides to a number of cities, this one most recently. The series is well designed; it can genuinely be fitted into a pocket, has good maps and is not heavy.

Being Top 10 Guides, they are not intended to be the most detailed guides on the market. If you are travelling only for a long weekend they will provide all the practical information you are likely to need and more in the way of activities than you could possibly do at about half the price of the bulkier show more comprehensive guides. If you are staying longer, then a comprehensive guide may be what you want.

With regard to this volume specifically, I had two days of playing tourist in Brussels and it served me well - I still got lost three times in two days in the maze that is Brussels old town, but not so severely as to feel stressed...whether another book has more detailed maps of the very centre of Brussels I can't say. A seperate Metro/Premetro map would have been useful, too.

I was able to plan my "hit list" of activities easily and even found a much needed English language bookstore...it's a branch of Waterstone's. show less

This book was difficult to read. The design of the pages chopped up the text so much that it was confusing. There are many images of Cezanne's work throughout the book, but they are all very small which does not allow for the beauty of his works to show through. There are also little breakout sections about art technique that were a nice addition to the overview of Cezanne's life. The concept of the book is quite good as there is a lot of introductory information to be found within, but the show more execution of the layout and the organization make reading the book more difficult than necessary. While it is relatively informative, the organization of the book while basically chronological didn't have very much of a flow. This book is part of a series on Famous Artists, but this book does not make me want to browse other titles in the series. T show less

One of the best of these guides. Defined by their not being German, Dutch or French but good Europeans without great illusions who enjoy domestic pleasures, good food, love their Royal family and have many of the worlds best restaurants in Brussels.
Reading between the lines, the author laudably wishes that the Flemish and Walloons would make a greater effort to get along.