David Weston has the ability to record a scene not as it is, but as it should be. That is to say that his work is highly subjective, an emotional response, perhaps, and also tinged with a little nostalgia.
David’s previous book covered an England that we all feel must have existed at some time and here he presents a wider view in much the same frame of mind. Travelling through the British Isles, Venice, Bruges, Italy and Norway, David records simple scenes and quiet corners rather than the more obvious grand vistas and includes a short description with most of them that helps to set each one in its context. Reproduction is generally good, but a few of the illustrations seem a little flat and I wonder whether the publisher has had to use transparencies rather than original paintings. It’s a small point but, at the price, it might take the edge slightly off your enjoyment of what is otherwise an eclectic armchair travelogue.
Halsgrove 2007
£34.99
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