It is rare to find a book of such authoritative quality designed for popular consumption. Its merit also means scholarly audiences can appreciate its fresh discoveries, abundant detail and personal thoughts from the cathedral archaeologist who has been intimately involved with the structure for twenty years. It is a successful and completely integrated team product, with text by Tim Tatton-Brown; stunning new colour photographs by John Crook, taken precisely to complement the text, liberally reproduced and spectacularly printed; fine explanatory drawings and maps by Jill Atherton based on Tatton-Brown's drafts; and two illustrations of building stages by the late Terry Ball.

The straightforward chronological narrative text describes how the entire complex of Salisbury Cathedral was conceived, built, maintained, used, changed and restored from its ‘prehistory’ to the 750th anniversary of the consecration of the cathedral in 2008. It is a history of the ‘life’ of Salisbury Cathedral in the broadest sense. Topics range across a gamut of the structure and institution of the complex – not only the church building and its contents, but also the cloisters, bishop's palace, canonries, churchyard and close wall – accompanied by chapter events, relationships with bishops and connections with the town, often interwoven with national and international incidents.

Readers will learn about the geology of the site, materials used, location of quarries, the workforce, funding, dimensions of various components, probable position of the original wooden church of 1219, sequence and dating of foundation work, walling, roofing, vaulting and glazing, and various locations of tombs, chantries and St Osmund's tomb, as well as early writers on the cathedral. Consideration of the variety of objects and media is included: for example, sculpture, church furniture, organs, drawings of original stained glass and manuscripts for comparison. There are sections on carpentry, the use of lead and arabic numerals, dendrochronology, and the revelation that many of the original timbers came from Ireland. Later chapters relay a good account of change, destruction, ‘beautifying’ and restoration of the structure, screens, tombs, stained glass and painting (although the specific sources for such details is omitted from this short book). Text boxes with differing coloured backgrounds explain topics clearly; for example, foramina tombs and the evolution of the name of Salisbury.

Tatton-Brown's readable prose makes history lively, incorporating effective detail and discoveries, such as the erection of the spire with its medieval full-size section drawn on the nave aisle wall, its stabilization by the seventeenth century, the employment of the cloisters at that time as a prison, and the opportune act of the Society of Antiquaries in sending Jacob Schnebbelie to make drawings and watercolours of medieval work before Wyatt's ‘improvements’.

Occasionally some of the story, as stories will, extends into divergent and tangential byways, but most readers will find the details interesting rather than bothersome. Much of the text necessarily contains probable assumptions, but they are usually, although not always, qualified as such. The possible and controversial role of Elias of Dereham in the design is treated prudently, if lacking the precision of a scholarly argument, but surely the author meant to refer to the term ‘architect’ as ‘post-medieval’ rather than ‘post-Renaissance’ (p 41). This reviewer would argue with the statement, ‘The carved heads [of the corbels in the triforium] are themselves a superb portrait gallery of many of the prominent local people’ (p 56), even though followed by the qualification of ‘we cannot put names to them’. Keeping to the popular format, there are no footnotes, the bibliography is limited to a mere five items, omitting the significant conference transactions of the British Archaeological Association (1996), and sources for illustrations contain only a partial listing. I spotted only four copy errors (eg, Beverley Minister, p 65).

Overall, anyone interested in Salisbury Cathedral will enjoy the accessible wealth of information and revel in gazing at the gorgeous photographs. The authors and publisher are to be applauded for producing such a handsome book, which even for the scholarly reader touches on myriad topics for considering medieval buildings.