This study of worship in England and Scotland builds upon the author's previous book, Sacraments, ceremonies and the Stuart divines (Ashgate 2002). Like the earlier work, Spinks's new book has a clear narrative structure, copious empirical detail and attractive illustrations. Because of its longer chronology, and because of the wide variety of worship in the established and dissenting Churches in England and Scotland, the book is less narrowly focused than Sacraments, ceremonies and the Stuart divines. It surveys a range of familiar themes, including the Church of England's failure to adopt a ‘liturgy of comprehension’ in 1662 and 1689, the difficulties clergy faced in imposing Prayer Book decorum in country parishes and the use of hymns by dissenters and Methodists. On these subjects, Spinks's judgements are sound if unsurprising. He gives good attention to interpretations of the sacraments, explaining Calvinist conceptions based on covenant theology, rationalising memorialist readings and the High Church emphasis on the eucharist as a sacrifice. The most innovative parts of the book, and those which relate most clearly to the ‘Age of Reason’, are Spinks's discussions of the liturgical reforms proposed by High Church and ‘Lockean’ clergy. Intriguingly, Spinks suggests that the ‘Enlightened’ decades of George iii's reign reduced the prospects of Prayer Book reform, and that what ‘seemed cutting edge in the early eighteenth century was later seen to be over the edge’ (p. 252). The Scottish material – about a quarter of the book – is welcome, although, as Spinks recognises, the culture of extemporary worship north of the Tweed produced frustratingly few sources, many of which are misleading or hostile. Whereas, in the early seventeenth century, developments in England and Scotland overlapped, the nations generally followed separate paths after 1662, and Spinks sometimes strains to find similarities where differences are more apparent. He stresses the importance of the lord's supper to English and Scottish evangelicals, but obscures the fact that in a period when English revivalists called for more frequent communion, the evangelical force of the eucharist in Scotland depended on its being a much-anticipated annual event. Indeed, the attention paid to Scotland declines in the second half of the book: I was surprised to find that Robert Burns's depiction of the ‘holy fair’ was unmentioned. Nevertheless, this highly readable work is a good survey of its subject; it provides an ideal introduction for students, and a starting-point for more specialised discussions of eighteenth-century worship.