My first book review: "unique" "often amusing" "entertaining prose"

All About History Magazine, Issue 21 - out January 2015

In 1876: Bananas & Custer
The definitive guide to a year in history
Author:  Robert Cormican
Publisher:  Miles from the Madding Crowd
Price:  £6.99
Released  19 April 2014

In 1876: Bananas & Custer is a detailed and innovative record of the events occurring over one year in history, and yes, both General Custer and bananas feature here.
True to the title the book features a mixture of earth-shattering events alongside curious and bizarre goings-on, which all took place during 1876.  Diaries of years or even centuries in history have been published before but what is unique about this offering is the form it takes.  Published exclusively for the iPad, this entire interactive book has been created with the medium firmly in mind.  You are perfectly free to read it as you would an ordinary book , but that would deprive you of some of the most innovative and engaging aspects of the publication.  You can choose whether you'd like to explore the year in order from the first day to the last, jump to the date of your choice or even choose to navigate by varied and entertaining selection of themes, ranging from 'Animal Kingdom' to 'Predictions' to 'Spot the Difference'.
Among the informative and often amusing retelling of the days' events there are little goodies littered about, such as the occasional pop quiz, maps, images and even handy links to other related articles in the book, so you can easily follow one single story through the year.  Almost every entry is backed up with extracts from newspapers and books from the period, adding a factual basis to the entertaining prose.
Because of the staggering size and depth of this book, it's unlikely to be something you read from metaphorical cover to back in one sitting, but what it does provide is an engaging way to fully immerse yourself in the events that defined 1876.  The best thing about this book is that there is no 'proper' way to read it; instead it puts the knowledge and the information in the hands of the reader to do with as we see fit.
Frances White

plus the advert from the same issue