There is no doubt that this is a great book, with wonderful recipes that entice. But, as so many books written by chefs, it forgets that sometimes readers need a little hand-holding. I am an experienced and confident pastry chef, but sometimes these recipes need a leap of faith that they are going to work. The shortbread (the BEST I've ever tasted), for example, didn't look like it was going to come together at all, but I just needed to believe it would, and worked it more than I'd usually work a pasty...and it came together. The oat and raisin cookies had to be made by individually moulding each biscuit together, doing it like Clark recommends just didn't work for me. But the results are worth while just bear in mind that this isn't Delia or Nigella...you're on your own.
None of this should detract from the fact that this is one of the most originally and scrummy-looking baking books in many years, if they'd just added a few more lines to each recipe, it would get five stars.