Cathedrals have long been a focus for historians' work on the middle ages, due to their status as religious centers and the abundant documentation that survives from them. Much of that work, though, comprises general studies of the church which tend to homogenize cathedrals, or particularist studies of individual cathedrals; comparative analysis is rather rarer, and the real value of this book lies in the way that it draws together different approaches, and includes some genuinely comparative essays.

The volume arises from a conference held in 2007, and its character is defined by that. It addresses a range of themes prominent in recent historiography, such as saints' cults (Ann Williams, John Reuben Davies, Michael Staunton, and Paul Webster), memory (Charles Insley) and local patronage and networks (C. P. Lewis and Stephen Marritt), while other important themes—such as liturgy or learning, which were central to the work and meaning of cathedrals—are largely omitted. All offer something, but the essays on the eleventh- to twelfth-century reorganization of the see of Lichfield (Lewis), on the saints' cults of the Welsh cathedrals (Davies), on the relations between English cathedrals and the lay aristocracy (Marritt), on King John and Canterbury (Webster), and on the French landholdings of Canterbury Cathedral and other religious houses (Nicholas Vincent), are especially valuable.

Overall, this is a useful and engaging volume with some original and important essays. As conference proceedings, the volume does not pretend to be an overview of the place of cathedrals in Anglo-Norman society, but provides pointers towards such a social and political history of the medieval cathedral.