Bernard writes, 'It goes to the gullibility of the author and his propensity to pseudoscience. From my files:
"The reliability of Peter Tompkins as a scientific source can be evaluated from some of his other publications (P. Tompkins and C. Bird, The Secret Life of Plants. NY: Harper & Row, 1977) in which Tompkins claims that plants can talk to people."

It occurs to me that folks who describe this book as ‘rubbish’ or whatever do so because they do not agree with some, if not all, of the various GP theories that Tompkins broaches – which, IMO, implies an element of intellectual snobbery.

I don’t agree with many (actually, that could be ‘any’) of the theories Tompkins touches on and, as I now see, ostensibly supports.
However, I do not conclude that therefore this book is ‘rubbish’ and should be ignored beyond seeing it as, to quote Warwick, “a must for anyone who seeks to better appreciate pseudo-historical methodology.”
This book contains a lot of material (admittedly much of it general) on the history of the GP, with the main focus being on the research and consequent theories of the last two hundred years or so (let’s face it there isn’t a lot to write about before then).
I have never considered the book to be at all ‘scientific’ and I’m surprised to learn that somebody does (albeit by implication).
Tompkin's book is self-evidently not a scientific work.
Good grief, even a "Sun Reader' could see that...

As for, ‘The reliability of Peter Tompkins as a scientific source …’; I think that what we see here is an example of - as John Wyndham put it* - “Lynch Darwin and you disprove the Theory of Evolution”.

Now, one thing in particular in this thread that captures my attention is the conspicuous absence of any specific, objective criticisms of Tompkins’ book beyond the choice of its title (down to advertising?) and the author’s failure to identify a certain Victorian woman as the wife of Charles Piazzi Smyth – which in itself is hardly a hanging offence…

So how about it, you critics of Tompkins’ Secrets of the Great Pyramid?
Any of you care to fill in the gaps?

Regards to all,

MJ

* The Midwich Cuckoos [1957].