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Books

A master craftsman of the anecdote

A review of Alex Monroe's Two Turtle Doves: A Memoir of Making Things. Punk, procrastination and ping pong: this jeweller's autobiography is full of gems

15 March 2014

9:00 AM

15 March 2014

9:00 AM

Two Turtle Doves: A Memoir of Making Things Alex Monroe

Bloomsbury, pp.222, £16.99, ISBN: 9781408841181

One of the many charms of this book is its sheer unexpectedness, which makes it hard to review, for to reveal the brilliancies too fully would spoil their effect. My copy is splattered with exclamation marks. For example, on page 65 the author is working on a piece of delicate silver jewellery that will become the ‘Two Turtle Doves’ of the title while singing along to ‘Hersham Boys’ by Sham 69, a punk band of the 1970s associated with skinhead violence.

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