Paperback Review: The Meat Fix: How a Lifetime of Health Eating Nearly Killed Me, By John Nicholson Biteback Publishing £8.99

There's nothing worse than a poacher turned gamekeeper

John Nicholson was for 26 years a model vegetarian. But health problems – IBS, high cholesterol, weight issues – led him to reconsider his diet, and he began to feel better after he returned to eating meat.

In this rambling, overlong book, Nicholson draws on his own experience to criticise "hysterical, paranoid" dietary advice and extoll the carnivorous lifestyle. Although you never doubt his sincerity, the research he offers to reinforce his argument is unconvincing, and his confrontational style quickly begins to grate. Indeed, judging by the way he dismisses the vegetarian community ("No dreadlocks or earnest lectures about animal rights here. Sod that.") they're probably glad to be rid of him.