Like volume xxxiii of this most important series (rev. ante lx [2009] 342–3), volume xxxiv is based upon episcopal acta collected by Mary Cheney, who died before its publication. It is also the last volume with which David Smith, the general editor for over thirty years, has been directly involved. Those who work on the English Church of the eleventh and twelfth centuries are very much in their debt. Volume xxxiv is unusual because these Worcester episcopates were short: seven bishops in thirty-two years. They are by no means uninteresting. Bishop Mauger, of whom this volume provides the first real study, took a principled stand in the service of the Church against King John, while Henry de Sully is exotic in his royal connections and the manner of his election, but brief episcopates mean only limited material for analysis of diocesan activities, episcopal households and the technical aspects of the acta themselves. Those acta are comparable with material from other dioceses. The confirmation, the inspeximus, the institution and the licence to convert a church's revenues in proprios usus are common, and there are some settlements of disputes and internal tenurial documents. William of Northolt had to deal with a tricky boundary issue concerning a Worcester house which lay in two parishes (no. 8); John of Coutances established the borough of Stratford-upon-Avon (no. 93); Mauger condemned the exaction of a payment called strene from churches and chapels in the archdeaconry of Gloucester (no. 115), took his responsibilities as executor of the will of one of his clerks very seriously (no. 134) and entrusted his officials with his seal when unable to return to England because of his dispute with King John (no. 146). It is also worth noting that the editors have revised their views about the bishop who issued no. 44 since volume xxxiii. This edition is, therefore, an essential resource for the history of the diocese, as are the short episcopal biographies with which the volume begins. The Latin texts are generally excellent, but the Sherborne of nos 33 and 73 is perhaps in Gloucestershire rather than, as the index suggests, the Warwickshire Sherbourne of no. 90. Rights over the Church of the latter were also perhaps more complex than is allowed for (see Records of the Templars in England, ed. B. A. Lees, London 1935, 26). Some Acta volumes also note documents connected to acta. This can be useful because such is the quality of the series that less experienced scholars might not go beyond the acta into the wider documentary and historical contexts behind them. It is not always the case here, but might have been useful for, for instance, no. 33 where the individuals and religious house in dispute also issued documents, or nos 54 and 72 where the diocesan administration is evidenced through companion archidiaconal acta. Copy-editing is by no means perfect in the bibliography and, occasionally, in rubrics and notes to acta, but these are minor quibbles, and the volume ends with an appendix which illustrates again the importance of this series and the community of scholars behind it in the report of a successful search for a lost seal to volume xxxiii's supposed original no. 8, enabling confirmation of the actum as a forgery and the seal as genuine.