Collection of International Book Reviews - Golf Through the Ages: 600 Years of Golfing Art

Golf Through the Ages: 600 Years of Golfing Art
Collection of International Book Reviews

“The most beautiful golf book ever!”
CNBC Power Lunch, December 2003

“For the golfer who has everything, there’s always more…Open your wallet and buy a better understanding of the origins of the game in a gorgeous coffee-table book titled Golf Through The Ages. It’s illustrated with 364 paintings and other color images of games dating back to the 12th century. Printed in Germany and bound in goat leather, this volume is lovely to look at, feel and hold.”
James P. Sterba, Golf Editor at the Wall Street Journal, 7 May 2004

“A magnificent production. My congratulations on your extraordinary original research.”
Larry Siddons, Senior Reporter and golf expert at Bloomberg.com, December 2003

“Incredible! So many beautiful pictures. An unbelievable book.”
Cliff Bond, ABC Sports Radio

“I just had to let you know that this is the best book I have ever seen. I really appreciate fine things and the quality of this Red Letter edition is unbelievable. I cannot thank you enough. You must be so proud to have seen this work come to fruition — well done.”
Brian Anderson, Head Pro, Royal Troon, 14 May 2004

“Michael Flannery and Richard Leech's Golf Through the Ages is much, much more than a remarkable history of the royal and ancient game of golf. It is a giant work of art in its own right; a massive victory of literary research and perseverance that history may one day judge as worthy as a successful assault on Mount Everest.”
Malcolm Campbell, Author of the best-selling book: The New Encyclopedia of Golf, 16 June 2004

“The press clippings you sent me still fall short of your achievement. The illustrations are dazzling… many of them were quite new to me -- a tribute to your scholarship -- and I've never seen them reproduced with such incredible detail and beautiful colour. The printing quality of the text is also superb, as befits writing that is both so factually and analytically sound and so articulate.”

“The more I get into Golf Through the Ages, the more I am inclined to agree with (Malcolm) Campbell's evaluation. What I thought was an extremely good book has now turned in my mind into a book that is unsurpassable.”
John McClelland, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto, 14 December 2003, 18 January 2004

“I have now had a chance to look through the book. It is quite magnificent, and I, more than most, appreciate the dedication to original research that is quite evident in the presentation and integrity of content.”
Alastair Johnston, author of The Chronicles of Golf: 1457 to 1857, 11 February 2004

“I've just received the book you sent me and am overwhelmed by its production! It is beautiful. Congratulations!”
Peter Thomson, CBE and Officer in the Order of Australia, is the five time winner of the Open Championship

“The most beautiful golf book ever. Destined to be the standard reference work for
generations to come.”
David Hamilton, Author of Golf, Scotland's Game

“Congratulations on your precious book; it's worthy of a great success!”
Sergio F. Balloni, Golf Specialist, Philologist and Historian, Milan, Italy

“It's always difficult to trot out superlatives, but this time I have no hesitation. Michael Flannery and Richard Leech's book is without a doubt the most exceptional which has been published in ages.”
Jean-Bernard Kazmierczak, a bibliophile and golf collector at www.GOLFIKA, France

“Our first reaction is …Wow! This is the most beautiful book I have ever read and you must be very, very proud.”
Scott Brown, Specialist for Television Golf Programs at Midas-Multimedia, Aberdeen, Scotland

”Marvellous. A well documented, lavishly illustrated coffee table book in the best sense of the word”
Dr. J. Ayolt Brongers, a medievalist and expert for early Dutch golf at Amersfoort, the Netherlands

“We are now proud owners of your exquisite book Golf Through The Ages. We have never seen such an eye-catching and breath-taking book. Not only the wonderful reproductions of so many unknown 'ancient golf' depictions, but also the pains-taking research on the origin of the various club and ball games is stunning. We congratulate you both on the result of your many years of intensive research.
Sara and Geert Nijs are sport historians specializing in research on the 'Hainaut/Avesnois' variant of jeu de crosse.”
Sara Nijs, 13 February 2004

“HISTORIC MASTERWORK — A genuine gem
Golf Through the Ages’s claim of being the most exclusive ever golf book, is completely justified. The 440 page strong work, richly illustrated with historic documents, occupies itself in an admirable manner not only with the origin of the sport, but also its development to the game as played today. Regardless of how high the price may seem, because of the precious content, superb production and limited number of copies, this distinguished work must be present before any golf library can be described as complete.”
Bücherecke (The Books Corner), Switzerland, 4 May 2004

“A COLLECTORS ITEM – THE MOST EXCLUSIVE BOOK ABOUT GOLF
Thirteen years long, Leech and Flannery sifted through archives, auction house records, museums and collection throughout the world to bring together material for what is certainly the most comprehensive book ever on the history of golf. It is, however, much more: Since the development of golf can’t be analysed in isolation, but rather in the sense of an ancestral tree, on practically every page the reader finds a surprise. How closely related today’s ball games such as hockey, cricket, polo, golf and tennis were at their beginnings, growing from common roots; and where and under what conditions they assumed their own character, is written grippingly with academic exactitude. Flannery and Leech prove that the first game of golf was played in the Loire region of France.”
Beate Jürgens, Editor-in-Chief of GolfWelt in Bonn, Germany

“Forget St Andrews - The cradle of golf lies in the Loire Valley. This book proves it. Golf Through The Ages offers a wealth of documentation and illustrations… half of which has never before been published and, although the title gives no hint, the book is actually devoted not only to golf but virtually all European ball games. One hardly needs to mention that Flannery and Leech's masterwork will be sought after by rare book collectors and bibliophiles as a landmark publication.”
“*****” Handelsblatt's top rating
Dieter Hintermeier, Sports Editor at the Handelsblatt, 19 March 2004

“I'll admit to reading only one golf book in my life - Lorne Rubenstein's terrific A Season in Dornoch. I just found No. 2. It's called Golf Through The Ages, co-authored by Michael Flannery and Richard Leech, each of whom spent the past 13 years of their lives on this massive project that chronicles -- through rarely seen art and text -- the origins of golf.”
Steve Pike, Senior Golf Writer at Professional Golf Association PGA.com (CNN) television

"Golf Through the Ages is fabulous - even more so than the reviews had led me to expect. I think this is the most beautiful book I have ever owned, and I look forward to reading it from beginning to end.”
Tracey Lawson, Reporter and Golf Specialist at The Scotsman (newspaper), Edinburgh, Scotland

“Congratulations on a beautiful book. It will take its place at the top of golf literature.”
Erich Helmensdorfer, Golf Editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Golf International, Germany

“The mother of all golf books is grinding its way through what might be the most impressive publication process undertaken. Golf Through the Ages chronicles six centuries of golf-related art. The authors spent 13 years travelling four continents to produce what became 440 pages that have been called a visual and literary masterpiece.”
Doug Pike, Senior Sports Writer, Houston Chronicle

“Golf Through The Ages belongs to the most comprehensive and credible works about this wonderful game. In each chapter and on nearly every page, attentive readers discover new facets from the history of golf, a sport much more diversified than has been appreciated. The authors Michael Flannery and Richard Leech have managed to convey their own enthusiasm about all aspects of golf history to their readers.”
Detlef Hennies, Managing Director of GOLFMagazing, Hamburg, Germany

“GOLF LIFE: ARTFULLY PLAYED, LADS
To call Golf Through the Ages • 600 Years of Golfing Art a book is akin to calling Pebble Beach a track. Like Pebble, this oversize eleven-pound tome is the most scenic of its kind, and just as no golfer's journey is truly finished until he tees it up in Monterey, no four-star golf library is complete without this definitive visual history of golf and its precursors. It took antique- and golf-collectible dealer Michael Flannery and publisher Richard Leech more than a decade to compile these 364 illustrations, which range from the first depiction of a European stick-and-ball game in 1120 to a painting of Walter Hagen and Henry Cotton on the tee in the 1930s. (The book doesn't enter the game's modern era, but then again, how much museum-quality golf art has been produced in the last fifty years?)
The text is equally authoritative, tracing the development of golf and its movement across and beyond Europe in term-paper detail. And the handmade book's production is nothing short of exquisite, featuring a goatskin binding, a five-band leather spine and a linen slipcase.”
Jonathan Lesser, Golf Editor, Travel & Leisure, May 2004

“Michael Flannery and Richard Leech have written perhaps the ultimate book for golf/art lovers, a one of a kind treasury of golf art and history spanning six centuries — the culmination of 13 years of intensive scholarly research.”
Fiona Ford, Press Officer at The Association of Art and Antiques Dealers, London

“In this monumental undertaking, the history of golf has received its ultimate documentation.”
Drive Golf, Das Magazin zum Golfsport, Zürich, Switzerland

“Golf Through The Ages is more than what the double-barrelled term 'Biblio-Iconography' promises: It is an extraordinary art book, above all a book for all friends of golf who are interested in the history and development of the sport that has 60 million active supporters, swinging woods and irons throughout the world. ”
Wolfgang Scheffler, Sports Editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung

“Just had a look and very impressive it is too. The superb binding has a very Victorian look… It’s a magnificent book. I think you should be knighted!”
Bob Grant, Specialist in rare Golfing Literature, April 2004