An "Honest Abe's NLP Emporium" Book Review - Reproduced with permission.
Written and Produced by Andy Bradbury; author of "Develop Your NLP Skills", "NLP for Business Success", etc.

I have no idea what the first edition looked like, but I'm quite clear that this "Revised Expanded Edition" really isn't worth the trouble taken to print it.  To be quite blunt, the text suffers from all of the many disadvantages of self-publishing, including:

• Significant spelling mistakes - like calling the author of The Spirit of NLP "Michael L. Head" (it should have been L. Michael Hall), and "Meta Programme" instead of "Meta Program"
• Missing cross references - There are references to topics such as "Relational Operator", "R-Operator", "Imprint", "Mental Aptitude Patterning", etc. which simply don't exist.  Other references are to topics which do exist, but not under the title in the cross reference
• Inadequate coverage - How do you discuss "Language" and "Semantics" without a single reference to Alfred Korzybski or General Semantics?  How do you feature multiple references to George Miller's "7 pieces of information ± 2" and never explain what a "bit" is, or that "chunk size" is a variable quantity related to the context?
  And what about topics like "nested loops", "artfully vague language", "closure"?  Some accurate definitions of the main meta programs would have been useful.  And are there really only three NLP presuppositions?
• Nonsense text - like:

  "... only by conscious effort and repetition can such material be retained indefinitely in short term memory"

  (wrong on both counts), not to mention the whole of the confused discussion of meta programs typified by the statement that:

  "There are nine components to the meta programme:"

• Inconsistency - On page 22 we are told that breathing "is a more reliable pointer to the sensory system than, for example, eye movements ...".  Yet on pages 22-23 almost the whole of the discussion of Calibration is based on ... Eye Movements!
• Unnecessary repetition - like multiple explanations of the anchoring process and of George Miller's research (see above)
• Use of jargon to explain jargon - for example:

  "CALIBRATED LOOP

  A circular process where two or more people pair each others unconscious, non-verbal responses and associate observable behaviour with their specific internal responses."

  Not exactly rocket science, but imagine a newcomer to NLP trying to make sense of this 'explanation'.
• Plain errors of fact, such as:

  "THROUGH TIME

  To be dissociated ..."

  Are the authors seriously suggesting that people who are 'through time' cannot be 'associated', or that people who are 'in time' cannot be 'dissociated'?  And how about:

  "VISUAL

  ... When used to describe a person, it has the same meaning as blamer [in the Satir sense]"

  I don't think so!

Along with all the errors there is undoubtedly some useful information.  But is that really good enough in a book that the authors claim is "a work of reference written in everyday language which would help [the reader's] comprehension of the NLP books they were reading or courses they were taking" (page 6)?
In the final analysis, this book would be expensive at any price, because:

• If you know enough to sort the wheat from the chaff then you already know enough not to need this book;
• If you can't tell which is which then these definitions are more likely to be a hinderance than a help.

Definitely not recommended.

An "Honest Abe's NLP Emporium" Book Review - Reproduced with permission.
Written and Produced by Andy Bradbury; author of "Develop Your NLP Skills", "NLP for Business Success", etc.

An "Honest Abe's NLP Emporium" Book Review - Reproduced with permission.
Written and Produced by Andy Bradbury; author of "Develop Your NLP Skills", "NLP for Business Success", etc.

An "Honest Abe's NLP Emporium" Book Review - Reproduced with permission.
Written and Produced by Andy Bradbury; author of "Develop Your NLP Skills", "NLP for Business Success", etc.

If you've read my reviews of Ms Knight's other two paperbacks - NLP at Work and NLP Solutions - then you'll know that I'm not a great fan of her work.  In this particular case, however, I think the writing is more focused and of a significantly higher standard.  Unfortunately the content rather undermines that advantage:

• On the subject of rapport we are told that rapport is "a two-way street".  Oh really, then how do con men and 'sharp' salesmen manage to create rapport with their victims?
• Ms Knight has also taking to creating her own NLP presuppositions, such as:
  • "The quality of your communication lies in the effect it achieves" - whatever that means;
  • "There is learning in everything that happens".  Well, yes, in one sense there is.  But since Ms Knight seems to be talking specifically about conscious learning, it would probably have been more accurate to say that "there is the potential for learning in everything that happens".
• Given her own presupposition I was rather surprised to find this comment: "If there is one talent that we need above all others today, it is the ability to learn ... People who can do this ...".
  Sorry, "people who can do this"?  Haven't we been told that there is "learning in everything that happens"?  Is Ms Knight seriously suggesting that some people cannot learn?  This discussion seems a little confused, to put it mildly!
• From the point of view of a complete NLP novice, this book stands out from all other NLP texts in that it ALMOST completely avoids specialised jargon - most of the time.  The exception to this comes around page 51 (of 65) where Ms Knight suddenly, with no introduction and no explicit explanation, starts referring to "anchors".
• If this is a true "introduction" to NLP then it has to be asked why the bibliography is so brief and so limited.
  In Seymour and O'Connor's "Introducing NLP" (3rd printing) the authors include an annotated list of NLP books that runs to nearly twelve pages.  Ms Knight lists just three books - two by herself, plus Genie Laborde's Influencing with Integrity.  Are these really the ONLY books she thinks are worth reading?
• And finally, whilst reading the book, I found myself constantly wondering what sort of audience the book is intended for.
  It is, in reality, more of a "taster" than an "introduction".  It covers several NLP techniques but doesn't really explain what NLP is.  (To be fair, it's hardly the first book that has fallen into that pit.).
  Personally I doubt I'd want to pass or recommend this book to anyone except as, say, part of a sales pitch to a company training officer/manager who knew absolutely nothing about NLP and with whom I could subsequently discuss and expand upon the various points raised in the text.   Not exactly a mega market place, I'd have thought?