The first edition of The Geology of England and Wales was published in 1992 and inevitably the succeeding decade and a half has seen an enormous increase in information and a deepening of our understanding of the geology of this part of Avalonia. The current edition has contributions from 40 authors whose work has been critiqued and refereed by another substantial panel of experts. As a result, we can have a high level of confidence in the overall accuracy of the text and innumerable figures that are so important to a book like this. And then there are the editors, Pat Brenchley and Peter Rawson, who have pulled it all together, with so many contributors – editing such a work is an immense task. Brenchley & Rawson thank their respective spouses for their ‘patience, especially when the editing lasted well into our ‘retirement’’. The whole geological community is lucky that there are still those with sufficient experience and knowledge who are prepared to take on such work from which we all benefit for another decade or more.

Structurally, the bulk of the present edition is arranged chronologically in three sections (Early Palaeozoic, Late Palaeozoic, and Mesozoic to Quaternary), each with chapters on significant intervals of time, from the Neoproterozoic onwards, set against the developing plate tectonic background. For instance the Early Palaeozoic section has three chapters, firstly on the ‘Cambrian and Ordovician’ and the tectonostratigraphic evolution; secondly on the ‘Silurian; the influence of extensional tectonics’ and thirdly ‘The Lakesman Terrane’.

The complexity and amount of the information in each chapter is so great that they have to be very clearly organized with a considerable use of a hierarchy of headings. For the reader looking for some specific information, the index is a vital tool for direction. Fortunately, the index has been carefully compiled to give as good coverage as possible. Inevitably most references are pre-2005 but I did spot the odd 2006 one. Finally, the illustrations: since they are derived from so many different sources, it is inevitable that they should vary in style, presentation and size so that some could have usefully been larger and others smaller but this does not detract from the overall worth of the book. More importantly, the 40 or so colour images (albeit mostly in a bundle) are a very useful addition, especially as they are well reproduced.

Like its companion volumes The Geology of Scotland and The Geology of Ireland, The Geology of England and Wales is an essential reference work on British geology. Hopefully the Geological Society will continue to encourage the production and publishing of such ‘staging posts’ in the development of our geological understanding.