For almost the last 20 years, ‘Hancock’ has been the standard introductory text on crop plant origins for students of agricultural botany at all levels. The reason given for preparing this new edition is that there is much new information available, mainly from molecular studies.

This book will feel very familiar to experienced agronomists, as much useful material on how genetic variability arises and leads to speciation has been retained, albeit somewhat updated. Evidence for, and theories about, origins of agriculture and plant domestication are discussed, with human food crops being dealt with in groups. Cereal, protein and carbohydrate ‘families’ provide the bulk of material and are dealt with separately, but other major crop types – fruits, vegetables, fibres and oils – are condensed within a single chapter. Forage and medicinal plants are ignored, as are beverage plants and forest products.

Readers should treat this book as very useful background, but not attempt to regard Hancock's accounts of non-plant based topics such as human evolution as up-to-date starting points for deep study.

‘Hancock 3’ is not about modern, directed plant breeding; one should not expect to find much about selection techniques or breeding methodology. There is, however, a short postscript on the need to conserve genetic resources and the extensive list of references is invaluable.