The study of the corpus of Anglo-Saxon charters was of course founded on the careful analysis and evaluation of the diplomatic elements that a particular charter contains. While this inevitably involved a degree of reflection about the various literary aspects of these documents, such diplomatic scrutiny was most often conducted with a view to establishing a document's authenticity, its links with other documents in the corpus, or its historical interest. More recently, scholars have been assessing charters as examples of literature in their own right and Snook's book seeks to examine the literary qualities of charters of the ninth and tenth centuries. In doing so, Snook also hopes to reflect on many important aspects of Anglo-Saxon charter scholarship: the agencies involved in the production of these documents, the purpose of the charter draftsmen (and their patrons), and the intended audience(s). Snook demonstrates that various ninth-century charters, particularly of Mercia, display signs of literary ambition, particularly in their use of the work of the famous early Anglo-Saxon author, Aldhelm of Malmesbury, and in their employment of literary devices like hyperbole and hyperbaton. That various charters of Edward the Elder's reign (899–924) also allude to Aldhelm, is, for Snook, emblematic of that king's desire to appeal to Mercia to stay true to his cause at a time when Vikings were an ever-present threat to political stability. Snook shows how the use of Aldhelm was taken to new heights by the extraordinary charter draftsman known to scholarship as ‘Æthelstan A’ and he makes interesting comments about the possibility that this anonymous draftsman was none other than Ælfwine, bishop of Lichfield, a man given unusual prominence (for a bishop of that see) in the witness-lists of ‘Æthelstan A’. (It should, however, be noted that, while Snook concludes on p. 110 that ‘it is unlikely that we will ever know the identity of ‘Æthelstan A’ for certain’, by p. 160 the equation of ‘Æthelstan A’ with Ælfwine has become slightly more certain, while by p. 191 Ælfwine is confidently said to have undertaken a ‘chancellor-like’ role.) In chapter iv, Snook discusses the roles of Oda, Cenwald and Dunstan in the production, style and content of various groups of famous Anglo-Saxon charters (for example, the so-called alliterative and ‘Dunstan B’ charters). He makes interesting suggestions about the ways in which various episcopal and archiepiscopal attestations demonstrate an elevated style when compared to their secular counterparts which, for Snook, is emblematic of the fact that charters are now speaking ‘not just with the king's voice, but also with the voices of the kingdom's leading churchmen’ (p. 154). Snook's observation may be correct, but it would have been reassuring to have a more extended discussion of the potential hazards involved in using charter attestations like this. The book's final chapter discusses the different diplomatic traditions on display during the reign of King Edgar (d. 975) and he gives a brief overview of the vexed question of the identity of ‘Edgar A’, suggesting in the end that questions of identity and localisation (‘Edgar A’ has at times been linked to Abingdon) should not occupy so much attention and rather that ‘Edgar A’ need only be recognised as one of at least four agencies responsible for the production of the king's charters (at pp. 170–1). There are interesting comments about the ways in which charters of the 940s onwards begin to recycle diplomatic formulae and Snook sees this as part of the agenda of draftsmen at that time trying to stress coherence for the new English kingdom. A book about the literary dimensions of Anglo-Saxon charters is a welcome addition and Snook makes various interesting connections with contemporary politics and royal ideologies. Perhaps inevitably, quite a lot of charters of this period fall from view, and issues of great diplomatic complexity do not always receive the full attention that they deserve. But much can be learnt from this kind of approach to Anglo-Saxon charters and hopefully this book will encourage further inquiry of a similar nature.