Isambard Kingdom Brunel -a graphic biography

  by Eugene Byrne and illustrated by Simon Gurr

Nov 2006     Shared by my visiting Book-addict Mother.

So, Brunel, the English Engineer of the early nineteenth century, had his two hundredth birthday, and my Mother, visiting England, bought this book about his life. This, er, comic-book about his life. It's a short, (90 page) book about his personality, his achievements, and his attempts, with lots of expressive cartoons. It's aimed at a younger reader, but it's fun to read, and full of information about Brunel. So, when my Mom arrived here, she said "Have your heard of Brunel? You should read this; it's a good book."

Now... do I have anything to say? ummm... Ummmm... Eeeeeerrrrrrrrrrr....

Have you heard of Brunel? You should read this. It's a good book.

Jan 2007   REREAD.

Oops: I was about to write a whole new review about this book, thinking I missed it before. -And I see that I haven't yet said much about it. Let me try to add a bit.

I was impressed with Brunel's ability to convince people. As the book points out, having inspired, genius ideas is worthless, if you can't raise the money to put them into practice. And Brunel could convince people again and again to invest in his ideas. He Three times broke the world record for building the biggest ship, (Each time shocking the world, and making many sceptical of his sanity.) -and each time these ships were marvellously expensive. -But they were still nothing compared to the cost of his railways. But Brunel had the charisma and could charm money out of people for that too.

The book is nicely written, and feels unbiased; It's just as ready to point out Brunel's failures as it is to applaud his accomplishments. It's warm, and develops for the reader a feeling of personality, rather than just dry facts. As I've said, it's a good book.