Encyclopedia of People

Review also includes:

The Kingfisher Geography Encyclopedia, Clive Gifford, Kingfisher, 496pp, 978-0753408230

Two or so years ago we celebrated the emergence of Usborne’s Peoples of the World – a photo-led and highly entertaining and informative gallop through the planet’s main population groups. DK’s Encyclopedia (I’m of an age to spell it with two a’s and don’t see why or where the first one’s gone) uses nine consultants and the usual galaxy of star editors to cover the same ground at a more ruminative ramble, allowing greater grazing and better browsing – as you’d expect for ten quid more. So whereas two years ago we found creoles dignified by one sentence describing them as regional dialects, here we get two pages, spelling créole with an accent aigu and explaining that, as every jazz-buff knows, créoles can be people as well as language. This is a highly entertaining ramble, giving, as the publishers claim, ‘an initial understanding of the enormous diversity of cultures in the world today’. We meet peoples unknown to us (for me it’s the Uros of Peru and the Bajau of the Philippines – water dwellers both) and surprising cultural occasions – the Great Pentecost Jump and the National Lobster Crate Race. So it’s an absorbing browse and, where it touches, a good information source as well. Excellent pictorial quality and relevance make this an excellent book for the curious family (well, you know what I mean) and a worthy addition to a conscientious reference collection. Oh, and – remember this – there’s no textual mention of Belgium and the world’s largest island is Australia.

The catch from Kingfisher uses just one consultant as it examines our planet land by land. After a look at the overall structure of the globe – plate tectonics, oxbow lakes and many other old friends – we examine each continent. We see landscape, peoples, culture and, very valuably, country by country national vital statistics in traditional ‘geography’ fashion. Being politically based, this book sends the reviewer scurrying to Iraq, to be rewarded by a commendably objective spread concluding with the uncertainty of the country’s post-Saddam future. This is a sound and extremely useful volume and, moreover, Belgium gets the full treatment and the world’s largest island is Greenland.