The Cloudspotter’s Guide is exactly what it says on the tin: a systematic guide to the main types of clouds, their subspecies and varieties, the physics leading to their creation and disappearance, etc. It’s all that, plus a love for clouds. The science is mixed up with all sorts of anecdotes and asides, personal reflections and observations about clouds in art and culture.

This is a pleasant diversion, a charming book. The style is very personal and chatty. This makes it an easy read but at the same time makes it hard to remember many details. There were so many disparate facts that I have already forgotten most of them, and the clouds all blur together again. But nevertheless, it was a pleasant read.

My one complaint is the lack of pictures. Each chapter starts with a nice woodcut-style illustration of a particular type of cloud, but apart from those ten images, and a few colour plates in the middle, there are mostly small black and white photos, flat and grainy – probably because of cost issues. This should be a glossy book with pictures all over the place. Not a coffee-table book, mind you: I rather liked reading it during my commute, and being able to look up from the book and gaze at the clouds above me.

Amazon UK, Amazon US.