This useful volume provides an exceptionally clear description of the ways in which the Reformation changed the physical appearance of the fabric and decorations of English parish churches. It methodically addresses, first, elements relating to ritual requirements – screens, altars, fonts, plate, cloth, books and receptacles; and, second, other components – paintings, glass, images, organs and bells, pulpits and seats, galleries and memorials. In the case of each type of article, the author describes its function and the characteristics of variants, both pre-Reformation and (where appropriate) post-Reformation, emphasising the chief differences. He sets out the legal basis for the provision or removal of each. He tells us when the element in question was produced, and chronicles the survival, defacement or demolition of each. He concludes each chapter with an analysis of the item's importance; the type of craftsmen who made it and those funding the manufacture; the support for and opposition to its installation or manufacture; and the attitudes of those involved. He considers the extent to which the motives of those craftsmen, donors, church wardens and parishioners were spiritual, or a matter of personal financial advantage or status, or a desire to comply with the orders of authority. Examples are drawn from Devon and Cornwall, Dorset and Somerset, Gloucestershire, Surrey, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, Derbyshire and Yorkshire, although the preponderance comes from the south-west. The text is amply and well illustrated with twelve colour plates and sixty monochrome photographs. Primarily directed to the undergraduate and graduate student, the narrative is clear and readable. The treatment of notes is less convenient. As is common, they do not appear at the foot of the relevant page, but appear at the end of the book, after some useful appendices. It is difficult to follow them unless one has already photocopied the bibliography, because the references in the footnotes are much abbreviated (for example, ‘Cross 1979’) and assume that the reader remembers the year in which the relevant book or article was published. This method saves space in the footnotes, but the references would have been more accessible if they had been placed at the foot of the relevant page and the reader would then only have had to turn to the bibliography. However, this is a small price for this attractive introduction to the subject.