This book is grouped into five sections: Introduction, Supporting Methodology, Propagation, Crop Improvement Techniques and the Business of Biotechnology. This wide remit offers positive points, in that some interesting and well-referenced articles are included, and negatives in that there is a wide variation in styles, content and detail. Also, chapters on highly specialized areas may be too detailed for a general reader, and hard to place in context.

However, the authors have made a worthwhile justification of their approach and attempted to contextualize the contributions in a very descriptive introduction. The book also comes with a DVD of Powerpoint presentations and ‘movie’ presentations of lab work which will be useful to many readers. There are some good mini-reviews with the chapter on molecular approaches a particularly useful overview. There are also some excellent introductory chapters (notably a chapter on the proper use of microscopes) which would be of great value to students and teachers. However, some sections are over-familiar to anyone involved in the field – Commercial Laboratory Production, Prevention of Contamination and Isolation of Protoplasts for instance have been widely reported in very similar form elsewhere. The final chapter on The Business of Biotechnology is, however, a useful addition. This is an extensive volume, variable in content and applicability, but as a general work covering plant biotechnology would provide useful information to plant scientists.