This volume brings together the ‘core texts’ for all the particular occasions when special national public worship was requested to take place in the British Isles and their colonies during periods of crisis or celebration from the accession of William iii/ii to the days of the ‘second empire’. A table showing a ‘summary’ list of each particular occasion contained here guides the reader to the contents of the book. A small number of additions and corrections to the ‘analytical’ list published in the first volume is incorporated into the ‘summary’ table, and detailed separately in the prefatory material.

The long introductory essay offers new research and significant contextualisation. It begins with helpful definitions of the different types of special worship. Since the focus is on the established Churches, the second section analyses the religious complexities of national worship after the political unions of kingdoms in 1707 and 1801. The third section discusses geographical and denominational limitations to the ideal unity of simultaneous observance by the whole nation. Several questions about the decision-making process are addressed in the following section: who appointed special worship in times of war and peace, on what occasions, when and where observance was prescribed. Once the decision had been taken, relevant texts had to be composed, published and distributed – a list of printers of official documents is a welcome appendix. The last part of the book reviews the extension of special worship to the overseas colonies before and after 1776. A select bibliography follows the introduction. Other prefatory material includes a helpful outline of the structure of the Book of Common Prayer liturgy indicating the parts that were modified by special worship.

However, the bulk of the volume consists in a critical edition of the ‘orders’ and forms of prayer for each particular occasion in the period under review. As the detailed ‘Reader's guide’ explains, the editorial apparatus follows the same format for all occasions, and each item is ‘self-contained’. Thus, it is possible to look up only one occasion or a cross-section, for example of particular periods, types of occasions, sermons or iconography. After the heading and subheading summarising the occasion, it is introduced in a ‘commentary’ followed by elaborate bibliographical information, including additional primary sources and an ‘indicative’ list of printed single sermons. Where relevant images have survived, their references come at the end of the critical apparatus. Indeed, two of the illustrations show that such engravings could either support or criticise special worship. A sophisticated system of abbreviations saves space in all these references. With such a wealth of information, there is unfortunately no index: a general index to the series will appear in the third and last volume. The transcription of the documents follows the apparatus. In many cases what has been retained is only what differs from earlier texts or the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

The book will undoubtedly be very useful as a reference work stimulating much further research into hitherto overlooked aspects of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century studies.