This volume covers ten parishes in the north-west corner of Gloucestershire that form a small peninsula protruding into the surrounding counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. The Forest of Dean is also adjacent, and the area shares many of the characteristics of these neighbouring territories. At its centre is Newent, the one substantial town. This is primarily an agricultural area, and that agriculture is primarily pastoral: dairy cattle and sheep. The main arable crop in the Middle Ages was rye, which has given its name to a stretch of light, friable sandy soils running from Dymock, a parish in the north of the area, far into Herefordshire. In modern times, these parishes have been mainly associated, unsurprisingly, with the production of cider and perry. Industry has been limited, with some glass and iron works, and an important range of industries based on the area's extensive woodlands, including charcoal burning, oak-bark production (for tanning) and woodworking. Predictably, perhaps, much of the old deciduous woodland has now been replaced by conifer plantations, courtesy of the Forestry Commission. The economy of these parishes therefore partakes somewhat of the regions adjoining them, the wooded Forest of Dean on the one hand, and Hereford, notable for its cider orchards, on the other.

Anyone with a serious interest in English local history will know what to expect from a VCH volume: detailed and comprehensive research, clarity of exposition and good maps and illustrations. This volume is no exception, as one would expect, given its authors. The editor was Dr John Jurica, the Gloucestershire County Editor, assisted by Dr Simon Draper; while Dr Jurica has written the majority of this work, Dr Draper and Dr Nicholas Herbert, a previous Gloucestershire County Editor, have each contributed a history of one of the parishes. In addition, Dr Jurica's immediate predecessor, Dr Carrie Smith, is acknowledged as contributing to this volume. The expertise of these individuals on the subject of Gloucestershire history needs no further emphasis here.

To those whose experience of VCH volumes is limited to earlier Big Red Volumes, produced in the early and middle parts of the last century, and who on that basis may be expecting something learned and authoritative within its own bounds, but limited in its scope and stuffy and uninspiring in its composition, this volume can confidently be recommended as an illuminating corrective. The VCH template has of course been used, with a short introductory essay followed by separate chapters for each county, each designed around the same overall structure: the volume opens with a map of the parish and a brief survey, followed by sections on settlement, manor(s) and estates, economic history, local government, and social history, ending with religious history. This structure has evolved over the lifetime of the VCH, but still carries within it the DNA of the project's original conception at the beginning of the last century, when, to be only slightly unkind and inaccurate, the intended readership appears to have consisted of two groups: the gentry, whose genealogies, estates, houses and country pursuits (which seem to have consisted pretty exclusively of hunting, shooting and fishing) were lovingly detailed; and clerics, for whom the same service was provided with respect to their churches, the two interests coming together neatly in the gentry's sepulchral monuments in the parish churches, all duly listed and described. Critics, both within and without the VCH, might complain that not enough has been done to reflect more recent (a relative term, in this instance, reflecting post-war) developments in historiography and society as a whole. Where, they might ask, is the gender history, or the incisive analysis of class relations and struggle? No criticism of the present volume and its authors is intended by admitting that such critics are unlikely to be satisfied by this work (although enthusiasts for the history of recent popular culture may be interested to learn that among Newent's famous sons was Joe Meek, the pioneering and profoundly influential 1960s record producer), but within the constraints – if such they may be called – of the VCH house style they have produced an interesting, well-illustrated and, ultimately, very satisfying volume.