Catriona Luke

Don't expect this to fit on any of your standard shelves. Or categories.

The book is slightly wider than it is tall, so it's too deep for some shelves, and a bit tall for a few others. Which to some extent describes the contents, too. It is full of beautiful photos of early Celtic productions -- of many sorts. There are manuscripts, such as the Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospels. There are items of metalwork. And a few other odds and ends.

It's a bit confusing. There are similarities between the books and the objects, in that both involve similar spirals and such. But it feels as if the two aren't really very closely related. And then there is the "gold" part. Some of the objects are, indeed, gold, but few if any of the books have gold foil included. And the odds and ends of history... don't really seem connected to the objects.

I'm not saying this is a bad book, but it doesn't seem to have a true unifying theme. Which makes it, frankly, very much like a lot of other books of "Celtic" material. Which would at least have the advantage of fitting your shelves better.… (mehr)