The Farmerfield Mission is another excellent contribution to the already extensive post-colonial literature on Christian mission history in South Africa. It tells the story of a Methodist mission community established in the Eastern Cape in the vicinity of Bathhurst in 1838; its significance within the broader history of the planting of Christianity in South Africa; its eventual destruction by apartheid legislation in 1962; and its re-establishment in post-apartheid South Africa as part of the process of land restitution. The book is appropriately structured in three parts of three chapters each, exceptionally well written, documented and illustrated. Part i locates the Farmerfield Mission within the framework of missionary endeavour as an extension of the Evangelical Revival in Britain. This occurred in tandem with the arrival of the 1820 British settlers in Algoa Bay and their location in the Albany district with Grahamstown as its centre. Under the leadership of William Shaw, the superintendent missionary, a chain of Methodist mission stations was soon established beyond the boundaries of the Colony. The Farmerfield Mission was a notable exception. Its origin lay amongst African converts who, displaced by the frontier wars, had taken refuge in Grahamstown. Taking heed of their request for land where they could settle and farm, Shaw purchased property about nineteen miles from the town and established the mission in 1838. Part ii continues the story over the next fifty years. analysing the social, economic and religious development of the community. The settlement was initially acclaimed as an example of an economically successful African Christian peasantry within the broader context of colonial farming expansion, for which it also provided labour. But conflict between the Farmerfield community and the missionaries over policy and the relation between Christianity and indigenous culture led to attempts by the missionaries to close it down. The twin problems perceived by the missionaries of ‘nominal Christianity’ and ‘incipient civilisation’ are examined in depth, as is the refusal of the community simply to follow their dictates. The community survived, being given a second chance to achieve its goals. Part iii describes how this reincarnation developed from the 1880s through to the advent of apartheid when the property was confiscated and its inhabitants rendered landless. The concluding chapter documents the rebirth of Farmerfield after 1990 as a new generation attempted to rebuild within a post-apartheid context, illustrating both the promise and the frustrating problems in attempting to do so. In telling the story Fiona Vernal significantly contributes to the debate about the reception of Christianity in Africa within the social and political upheavels of the past two centuries. She also contributes insight into the current debate about the future of rural South Africa and the role of Christianity within it.