The idea of English having “suddenly appeared as a pure language untouched by others” (p. 39) is a myth. There is in fact a great deal of “variation and impurity” even within (who would have thought?) British English. Such is the tone adopted by Kirkpatrick to impress upon his readers that the English language is no monolith; rather, we should be speaking in terms of “World Englishes,” in the plural. Kirkpatrick is certainly not the first to make the claim that the English is a host of languages bearing some semblance to one another. And he recognizes that there is already a plethora of books on the market. What makes his book different is that “it aims to describe selected varieties of World Englishes and then discusses the implications of these varieties for English language learning and teaching in specific contexts” (p. 1).

The book is presented in 13 chapters, divided into three parts: Part A, “The framework,” comprises three chapters. Part B, “Variation and varieties,” is made up of eight chapters, occupying the lion’s share of the book. Finally, Part C, “Implications,” is composed of two chapters. The three chapters that make up Part A lay down the basic sociolinguistic concepts and key linguistic terms used in the rest of the book and address the question of models of World Englishes. Kirkpatrick argues that the tripartite classification of Englishes made from a language teaching perspective – namely, ENL (English as a Native Language), ESL (English as a Second Language) and EFL (English as a Foreign Language) – though helpful in some contexts, is problematic especially because of the idea that “ENL is innately superior to ESL and EFL varieties” (28). Kachru’s “three-circles” model is recommended as a way out. There is, finally, a brief discussion of the political debate over the spread of English.

Part B takes the reader through “the powerful variety of American English” through Australian English (fondly characterized as “a younger cousin”) to the subcontinent of South Asia, voices from Africa, Englishes from Southeast Asia (queried as to whether they can be classified as “colonial descendants”), emerging Englishes from Hong Kong and China to, finally, English as a lingua franca. Part C, by the author’s own admission the meatiest part of the book, summarizes its key themes and ends by offering the reader some implications for English language teaching. The pluses and minuses of choosing an “exonormative native speaker model” versus an “endonormative nativised model” are pitted against the idea of choosing a “lingua franca approach,” the author’s own preferred alternative. The book comes with an accompanying audio CD and corresponding transcripts in the form of an appendix, as well as the customary author and subject indexes. This volume is introductory and as such useful to beginners.