Negative Positive
Title: NOT what the doctor ordered!
Review: Liza Picard's book on mid-eighteenth century London is essentially for those who like to dip into a topic and have a short attention span. Though long, there is less to it than first meets the eye. This is history-lite and as such would probably have found limited favour with Dr Johnson himself. Ms Picard has used some interesting material from medical sources of the day but her reliance on The Gentleman's Magazine as a source shows in the notes at the end of the book. There is little attempt to relate all this detail to the actual events of the times, so the reader is left with a far from balanced picture of what mid-eighteenth century London was really like.
Is the review positive or negative? 