The second edition of this book follows the general format of the first in that it is composed of two parts. The first part describes the principles, strategies and technologies used in crop breeding in a thorough and readable manner and the second part gives case studies of breeding in selected crops. However, this is not just an update of the first edition but is a thorough revision with some very significant additions to it, in particular a section on molecular breeding comprising six chapters describing molecular markers, mapping of genes, marker assisted selection, mutagenesis breeding, polyploidy in plant breeding and molecular genetic modifications and genome wide genetics. There is also the welcome addition in the section on breeding selected crops of chapters covering some horticultural crops (cucumber, tomato and roses), which gives more variety than in the first edition that largely focused on the major staple crops. The author has also included two very useful supplementary chapters, one giving an overview of plant cellular organisation and genetic structures and a chapter on common statistical methods in plant breeding. As in the first edition, there are ‘industry highlights boxes’ embedded in all of the chapters written by experts in their field. These really are highlights and give a great amount of additional information and significantly add to the value of the chapters. Each chapter ends with key references and a set of questions to assess the readers understanding. This is an excellent textbook for students and teachers of plant breeding.