Robin Hood's Bridge Memoirs [Paperback]

David Bird (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 2003

This sequel to the widely acclaimed Bridge Adventures of Robin Hood provides a further feast of 11 brand-new bridge adventures. Fans will find plenty of rollicking humor and painless instruction within.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Batsford (June 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0713482451
• ISBN-13: 978-0713482454
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,765,155 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Bird is the author of 108 bridge books, recently overtaking the total of the late Terence Reese. He is best known for his humorous bridge fiction, involving the monks of the St Titus monastery headed by the pompous Abbot, Hugo Yorke-Smith. Bridge correspondent for the Mail on Sunday (UK) and the London Evening Standard, David contributes to many bridge magazines around the world and is a frequent commentator on international bridge events for Bridge Base Online. Married to Thelma, with two children and a four-year-old grandson, he has a great passion for travelling the world. In any country they visit, he and Thelma make sure that they take full advantage of the local food and drink. They are also keen snorkellers.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Recommended, June 17, 2001

By 

John Peter O'connor - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Robin Hood's Bridge Memoirs (Paperback)

David Bird rightly received many plaudits for his fine series of books describing the Bridge playing antics of the fictional monks of St.Titus Abbey. His Robin Hood series appears to be an attempt to broaden the franchise and, as is often the case, he has brought in others to assist with this while still keeping the David Bird badge on the cover.

In this book, many of the hands were devised by Tim Bourke with the author adding his humour and general style.

This book follows the format of "The Bridge Adventures of Robin Hood" in that most of the hands described take place in a rubber bridge setting and they are of a different character to those of the Abbot series.

I have two reservations about this book. The first is the general tone and quality of the humour. The jokes continue in the same vein as in the first book of the series. An example is the setting in which a bridge playing whore named "French Laura" is referred to as having "gone down" more times than her Bridge partner. I'm afraid that all of this wears a little thin over the course of a book.

The second problem is the way that the settings are described. Of course, the legend of Robin Hood is far from being historical truth and the author must be given plenty of leeway but when he refers to real historical characters and events and misplaces them by 100 years it does work to break the suspension of disbelief necessary for full enjoyment of the book.

Fans of the author's other humour run the risk of disappointment with this book.

Because of those issues, I cannot really recommend this book it falls some way short of the standard of Bird's better known series and as bridge humour, it is below par.