Henry Hyde's "The Wargaming Compendium"

Bzzzzzzzz Bzzzzzzz
Bzzz Bzzz Bzzzz

"Hello!?"
"Postman = I've got a big parcel for you"
"On my way down"

That was the bleary-eyed and scraggy-tailed conversation I had this morning, a few minutes before heading off to work.

"But what was in this heavy parcel?" you ask. Well, obviously this was:

but also a few Ospreys, "Achtung, Schweinhund!" and an ultra-sonic cleaning bath. the last will be used for a number of purposes - cleaning jewellery, assisting with stripping paint from minis and if I ever get into airbrushing for cleaning the parts. But let's return to the main event.

After a much prolonged gestation (how many times did Amazon put it up for pre-order then take it down again?) and then delays in actually getting the printed copies to the publisher, Henry's masterpiece is finally available for sale to the great unwashed grateful public. How Henry found time in between editing issues of MW to buckle his swash and wrest the shipping containers from the pirates that held them up is beyond my knowledge.

I've got to admit that so far I've only had a quick leaf-through of the book, but I'm definitely impressed. As one would expect from Henry, the illustrations and photographs are superb (and lots of them). The text is printed in a large enough font that it should be easy for everyone to read comfortably, with good line spacing. Equally impressive is the "heft" of the book - 1.47kg of glossy goodness. And it is just the right height to slip under that wonky table leg (just kidding Henry!).

I'm definitely looking forward to reading this at home over the next few weeks. It certainly looks to be well worth the wait, the weight and the full cover price of £35 (although it is available for £16 on Amazon).