Debrett’s Peerage and Baronetage 2000

Debrett’s is, and has been from time immemorial (it was founded in 1769), part of the library furniture. Reviewing it is done against a background of familiarity bordering on reverence; it is hard to see it with fresh eyes and an open mind. “How DARE one presume to criticise!” But in iconoclastic mood and at the risk of causing apoplexy in the stately homes and in the hundred or so gentlemen’s clubs listed on page 28, let me opine that the book is too damn heavy, its paper ridiculously thin, its page layout execrable, and its contents confusing! I suspect,...