As the author says, there is already a huge literature on the Great Western, so that in what claims to be a 'history' one naturally looks for something new or at least spliced with different examples to 'illustrate' salient points. Here the reader will be disappointed. The familiar story is told well enough, but the only thing that is new are the author's personal comments. For example, 'Brunei's impulsiveness almost got the better of him', he had a 'blase attitude to safety' and was not 'thinking as clearly as normal'.
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