As an avid reader of Bruce Chatwin I was excited at the chance to delve into his notebooks and photographs; especially because Chatwin made a point of burning drafts for his writing , so that judgements could only be made on the finished manuscript. The editors have, however, kept close to the author's wishes, and not revealed anything new about Chatwin and his writing - they have, instead, produced a sumptuous coffee table collection of photographs and snippets. Beautiful as an object, divorced from any academic approach to understand the notebooks, the book is an exotic yet superficial representation of the man and his work.