This detailed and scholarly book is not just a study of the Latin Church in what can be loosely termed Norman Italy, but a contribution of exceptional importance to knowledge of the Norman conquest of the south and of the establishment and development of the kingdom of Sicily. Although the author would see the epithet ‘Norman’ as losing its significance as a description of the new states' (from 1130, state's) identity in the first half of the twelfth century, the book's effective cut-off date is the death of the Empress Constance in 1198. Graham Loud's outstanding knowledge of the southern Italian sources, and most especially of charters, makes the book a goldmine of information as the reader is guided carefully through all aspects of the institutional Latin Church and its march to increasing, but not total, religious and institutional dominance by the end of the twelfth century. On the way the author offers reflections on a host of subjects such as, for example, peasant freedom/unfreedom, architecture and the appointment of priests to churches. The creation of organisation out of a ‘confused’ and ‘inchoate’ situation is a major theme. The evolving relationship between rulers, Church and papacy is sensitively and thoughtfully treated with the Treaty of Benevento (1156) seen as the start of a new era of collaboration. The reader is from time to time brought up short by helpful comparisons with other regions of the medieval west, with the striking conclusion that overall the Norman conquest did not significantly open southern Italy to external influences. If, as the author admits, the sources inevitably skew treatment towards institutional aspects of the topic, the later stages of the book do tackle wider issues of Latin, Greek and Muslim relations in this fascinating part of the world. The final conclusion is that the reigns of Roger ii, William i and William ii represent a golden age for the Church in comparison with the thirteenth century, ‘a time of travail and torment’ (p. 524). I spotted only one typo in the whole book: on p. 82 ‘Oully-le-Tesson’ should be ‘Ouilly-le-Tesson’. This book's magisterial display of learning will make indispensable reading for all those interested in both the Norman kingdom and wider issues of continuity and change in the midst of the great transformative changes of eleventh- and twelfth-century Europe.