I did not finish this novel, which is a complete shame because I was really settling into the read nicely. Around the 30% mark f*bombs suddenly started showing up. I overlooked the first couple as maybe an odd addition but just had to give up at 40% when yet another cropped up unnecessarily.

The representation of the world of niche market entrepreneurship, and the schmoozing and lousing that comes with obtaining clients, was an excellent example of where our craftsmen went wrong. The struggle that one workshop faced because ONE customer cut out on them teaches why you don't put your livelihood, and that of your employees, in one basket. I wanted to see how opening up a local business turned out after so many previous bad business decisions had been made. C'est la vie.

This drew me in with a blurb about craftsmanship, woodworking, and the gorgeous cover.

There were some beautiful moments in the book -- the opening scene of the author and his dad scrabbling about a big, remote warehouse looking for hidden gems of hardwood; his interaction with an old joiner in his retail shop; his stint in a New Zealand workshop.... Some beautiful descriptions of wood, trees, and the people who work with them. "Wood is such a deeply special material." -- I agree.

However, on the whole, it felt like repeated over-dramatization of some poor business decisions. Many of the major obstacles were of his own contrivance -- he repeatedly praises his crew's master-craftsmanship, but then seems to not use their expertise when his business is most imperilled - describing them whiling away the time and twiddling their thumbs, whilst he alone scrambles to come up with a solution. After WEEKS of idleness and angst, we see them turning out cutting boards, and with ideas to open a shop & make some smaller-scale furniture. I'm not a businessperson, but I was thinking this ONE page after the big mysterious bespoke ultra-wealthy job fell through. Which is another thing - what WAS the giant, bespoke, specialty job that got cancelled? It was all very vague, but it was the only thing they were going to be working on and it was going to take the entire workshop weeks (months?) to do.... The reader never hears about this other than in the most general terms.

The rest of the book was a scattering of stories about his childhood, his father, and his earlier life growing up & working in his dad's workshop and gaining his skills. I looked up the retail shop in Linlithgow, and it's now closed permanently, but his company does have a gorgeous very high-end website. So I guess he returned to that type of work.

I left this book thinking this guy could write reasonably well, sometimes even beautifully when waxing on about various timber and wood, could build some beautiful things, but was annoyingly obtuse when it came to business acumen, and the story felt all over the place. I was thinking about getting it as a gift for my dad, also a master craftsman and woodworker, but after reading it decided not to.

The language in the book feels stilted. The author seems more interested in hearing their own voice than appealing to the reader. A quarter of the book in and I still did not feel as if the book had a direction or a story. I would have enjoyed the story if it was more succinct and personal.

I really enjoyed reading this ARC from NetGalley. When I finished it, I was thinking very hard as to how to explain it. I snuck a peak at a couple of other people's reviews, and came across the perfect word to describe it.....lyrical! Not a word I tend to use myself, but there it is. This book is lyrical. It's like listening to someone extraordinary explain their passion to you. The words just flow like honey and leave you feeling a sense of awe that someone is so happy with their vocation. Robinson is that way. He lives, breathes, and loves woodworking. I think if it was taken away from him, he would cease to exist.
If you read this book, you follow along with the author as he describes his upbringing, with a somewhat stern but deeply caring (he discovers later) father, who was also an artisan. You see him as a child having to face his fears, as a teenager with typical teenage angst (okay, maybe a little more than typical), to an adult with his own furniture building company. You get to see his struggles as a self-employed businessman, the financial pressures, the worrying about his employees well-being, as well as his own.
Through it all you get to ride along as he creates some of the most beautiful, artistic furniture I have ever seen. And, if you're interested, you can follow him on Instagram and see some of his creations. You won't be disappointed.
It's really gratifying to see someone who loves his craft, and wood in general so much. And how he comes to learn to become his own man and see what his father was really trying to teach him all along.
Highly recommend this book to give you a really good feeling!

Lyrical, evocative, and intensely observed. This is both an homage to extraordinary artistic craftsmanship and a gift from a first-rate writer to his remarkable woodworker father. There are glimpses of the author's childhood and upbringing in Scotland, interspersed with some harrowing business challenges, but the narrative always comes back to the wood, the woods, the trees, and the hands that carve and create masterpieces from it.

Callum Robinson is on Twitter (@CallumGRobinson) and well worth a follow (he posts pictures of his Dad's work). Very highly recommended.