Ingrained

July 1, 2024

In his first book, woodworker Robinson blends memoir and nature writing to tell the story of how he learned his craft. He grew up in rural Scotland and learned from his father, whom Robinson helped create exquisite objects; he eventually established his own workshop. Contemplating the trees that provide his medium and the art of handcrafting heirloom pieces, he reflects on his journey. Prepub Alert.

Copyright 2024 Library Journal

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2024
Nestled in a forest beside a loch in the hills of Scotland, woodworker Robinson and his design-professor wife, Marissa Giannasi, have a thriving business providing bespoke furniture to wealthy corporate clientele. He's a native of the region, having grown up in a house surrounded by old-growth trees. Robinson cherishes this land, and its oaks, pines, and elms mean everything to him. The local lumberyard is equally a source of wonder, each massive plank distinctive for him, its whorls and grain summoning up emotions and sparking a creative urge to turn it into furniture that becomes its own objet d'art. The unexpected loss of a client exposed the fragility of the business, leading Robinson to pivot to more commercially accessible tables and chairs. Robinson's prose in this intensely emotional paean to the forests that supply wood for his livelihood evokes the swirling grains and polished surfaces of his accomplishments. Craftsmen who labor with hands and eyes will find here a kindred soul as deft with a pen as a plane.

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November 15, 2024
The story of how a personal financial crisis forced the author to get creative. Robinson is the eldest son of a Hebrides-bred furniture maker whose skills with people and wood he holds in awe. Alas, Robinson does not share his father's talent for the craft of woodworking. Though bright and sensitive, he's painfully shy. He skips university to take a job in a pub, and it's only when his father asks him to help with his business that Robinson is forced--a position his passivity often puts him in--to reluctantly start paying attention to the skills required of a craftsman. He completes his apprenticeship at a large commercial concern in New Zealand before returning to Scotland to make a go of it on his own. Luckily, he meets his soulmate Marisa, an outgoing college grad of Italian heritage with an entrepreneurial spirit and a knack for conceptualizing furniture design. The couple begin a business creating bespoke pieces for corporate and other well-to-do clients. But when their largest client cancels a contract, they make a quick decision to open a boutique on the high street of an Edinburgh suburb. Robinson is a painstaking writer, clearly inspired by authors like Anthony Bourdain, Bill Bryson, and A.A. Gill, but his talents can seem larger than his subject often calls for. The medium-stake drama of whether the business will open or survive can seem overwritten. And yet passages about walking in a highland forest among the ancient oaks and more recent "immigrants" like Douglas fir, or comparing the grains of wood for various purposes, reveal him to be a master of sensory prose. A woodworker shows he's equally gifted with words.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 13, 2024

Woodcarver Robinson's book is a love letter to his craft, which he learned by helping his father, an expert woodcarver himself. He shares the challenges and uncertainties of starting a small furniture shop with his wife, who's a designer and architect, in Linlithgow, Scotland. Begun on a shoestring budget, their business and the quality of their work sparked admiration and immediate orders. Robinson's book takes readers to the woods and sawmills, where his supply is felled and dried locally. He shares his knowledge of the different types of wood and how each is used to achieve best results. Brief asides within the text instruct readers on which tools to use in their own woodworking and how to get started, including considerations for designing and constructing a chair, ensuring safety when using tools and machinery, finding inspiration for designs, staying true to instincts, marketing one's creations, and even serving as a woodcarver's apprentice in order to learn more. VERDICT The lyrical quality of the writing makes this memoir about woodcarving and being an artisan a lovely addition to any collection.--Caren Nichter

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 16, 2024
In this reflective debut memoir, Scottish woodworker Robinson recounts the beginnings of his career and details the near-ruin of his bespoke carpentry business. Weaving in vignettes from his 1980s childhood, memories of woodworking with his father, and rapturous passages about his love of the natural world, Robinson covers the daily grind of his craft while meditating on the spiritual implications of creating work that’s likely to outlast him. The narrative hinges on the threat Robinson’s woodworking firm faced after it lost a significant client, recounting how Robinson, his wife, and his employees pivoted to open a furniture store. Much of the book luxuriates in the physical details of Robinson’s craft, but he has more than labor on his mind: in writing about the process of building a chair, for example, then considering how that chair might be used by the people who purchase it, Robinson assigns deep meaning to the careful construction of objects in a fast-paced world that often prizes cheaper alternatives. Robinson’s lyrical prose (“The low winter sun, as much a stranger as we were to the windowless porch, followed us meekly inside”) and dedication to his craft will appeal to artisans and appreciatorss of all stripes. Agent: Rebecca Gradinger, UTA.