Thank you NetGalley and Austin Macauley Publishers for the chance to read and review this.

I requested this book because I thought it might be a cute thing to give to my little cousin or nephew. While the art is lovely and truly a treat for the eyes, the rest of the book is incredibly disjointed and not very good.

A very cute and educational poem. The illustrations are beautiful and so very intricate. A nice read with the kids.

This book takes the reader on a vague journey through time in the UK. Each double-spread has a haiku and full illustrations of the period of time it covers. I'm afraid that I found the whole thing a bit depressing. Everything was viewed negatively and in terms of what damage has been done to the planet. While I wholeheartedly agree that this issue is pressing and cannot be ignored, we are where we are and we need to be looking at what can be done now to reduce the impact of this damage. I also don't think we should ignore the vast progression that this damage is a byproduct of.

Recently I 'read' Stanley Donwood's wordless picture book "Bad Island" (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7199440880) which showed us how humanity can make anything go to hell in a handcart, but showed us in a way that will make absolutely zero change to anything anywhen or anywhere. This book does – and does not do – the very same. It starts with the sylvan hills of fair Albion, then shows how humanity is kind of paving over the whole world and poisoning its air with war and industrial activity, and once again this is not going to create any affect. No, not even being in very traditional and very well-written haikus will help, nor will the competency of the watercoloured illustrations. As clever as either of these fleeting publications can get, their positive benefits will be minuscule. This might make me a liar with its teachers' questions at the end, but all the same.