Considerable excitement attaches to a textbook which promises to deliver an exploration of the complex and changing nature of the churchyard landscape. Hitherto, studies that have relied largely on archaeological recording methods have provided detail on change in memorial design but rarely placed memorials within the context of managed space, where the conceptions of the consolation and purpose change over time. According to the publisher summary, Thornbush and Thornbush offer ‘a cross-temporal perspective of landscape change – of the headstones as landforms in their landscape (as part of deathscapes)’. The text also offers something even more precious, and that is a study contrasting English and Scottish memorial practices. There are substantial differences in the legalities of churchyard management and grave usage in England compared with kirkyard management and lair ownership in Scotland.

In actuality, this text simply summarizes quantitative data collated through a programme of monument recording. Chapter 1 outlines the two research aims, which are to establish whether commemorative patterns are similar to those discerned in the seminal 1966 US study by Dethlefsen and Deetz, which charts changing patterns of gravestone motifs over time. This study used gravestone carvings as material cultural evidence of religious belief. Thornbush and Thornbush signal the intention to deploy cultural historic and consumer choice theories, although there is little theoretical depth and no engagement with literature in these areas. Rather, the authors count the incidence and timing of stylistic tropes, and compare sites. A second objective is the creation of a substantial record of the sites visited. The authors have collated data on over 1,000 headstones, and the text concludes with over 100 pages of summarized data which will no doubt be of value to genealogists. Aside from the front cover image, the text includes no photographs of any of the recorded headstones, and this is a serious omission.

The text takes a logical pathway through its discussion of data, beginning with a description of its six case-study locations. These include Oxford, York and Scarborough, and Dunbar, Inverness and Edinburgh. The potted history of each of the case-study locations is unlikely to satisfy urban historians, and contains little in the way of primary material or a convincing grasp of how religious, social and economic contexts may frame funeral practices. Surprisingly, no reference is made to historic data relating to the churches in the study, where the vestry and heritor records are likely to have illuminated some of the issues relating, for example, to site layout and monument permissions. Following chapters describe the shape and dimensions of headstones, motifs, inscriptions and fonts and the length of epitaphs. The authors use Mytum's numeric headstone style classification model without any corresponding chart image: the fact that the number 4,600 represents ‘an ogee or saddle’ needs visual guidance. Some tables are, consequently, difficult to read and it remains uncertain why the authors did not take the more usual step of presenting information using battleship charts.

Overall, there are problems with the tone and depth of the study. The task of recording headstones and memorials has engaged innumerable archaeologists and antiquarians and it is now appropriate to begin problematizing some of the assumptions that sit within this endeavour and this text particularly. These relate to the decisions taken about how to define the ‘shape’ of a memorial and researcher-based assumptions on what are regarded as relevant features; the impact on data validity of now-absent memorials, and the skewing nature of historic decisions on graveyard reordering. In addition, it can surely be questioned whether ‘emulation’ is a valid explanation for the diffusion of particular designs; that larger headstones necessarily denote competitive status display; and that ‘the poor’ sought ostentatious funerals and monuments ‘as their last chance to make a long-standing impression’ (p. 63). Further, elements of analysis are problematic. For example, the text undertakes seriation analysis in seeking to establish trends over time, but also includes all headstones in site-related comparison regardless of their date and with no attempt at weighting.

Monuments comprise tremendously important elements of vernacular material culture. The task of gravestone recording is a substantial academic endeavour which has advanced in technical terms but perhaps made more limited headway with regard to modes of analysis. The intriguingly complex headstone on the front of this text is by no means well represented or understood through a process which simply records its height, shape and motifs. Finally, the authors have not been well served by their publisher: the text needed thorough peer review; the contents and index are a little bizarre; and a list of maps, figures and charts would have been welcome.