PositiveNew StatesmanWithout wishing to be mean about tortoises, after reading Brolliology I can’t help thinking that the umbrella is a much more rewarding choice of subject ...a well-illustrated and wide-ranging essay on the history of an everyday object that in today’s world is both essential and discardable ... What I like most about the book is its determination to make us look at umbrellas in all their ingenuity and weirdness. They are both weapon and defence... My favourite part of the book concerns the umbrella that is lost, broken, or stolen. It’s quite an emotional chapter ... Though slightly marred by a few proof-reading errors (there should be no apostrophe in Howards End, and there was no Catholicism to speak of in 'the 8th century BCE') and, in my edition, an odd printing problem, Brolliology is a thought-provoking little book.
