A thing that is partly good and partly bad:this book is a bit of a curate’s egg...
Volumes of collected journalism do rather tend to be curate's eggs.
Jones has been trying to run a curate's egg in an industry that has become increasingly specialised.
But without the accompanying TV show, all crashing waves, white sand and gnarly crofters, the book reveals itself as something of a curate's egg.
Origin
Early 20th century: from a cartoon in Punch (1895) depicting a meek curate who, given a stale egg at the bishop's table, assures his host that ‘parts of it are excellent’.