The first edition of this book, published in 1992, has deservedly become one of the standard texts for university courses in structural geology. The second edition involves considerable additions and amendments, and an increase in size of about 40%. What persists from the first edition, and what has changed?

One of the aims of Structural Geology remains to cover basic topics in the subject whilst linking these to more advanced research in the field. The book's approach is therefore more comprehensive than most comparable texts, and it is more suitable for intermediate to advanced undergraduate courses than for beginners. A second aim of the book is still to reflect scientific method by proceeding from observation and description, through kinematic and mechanical modelling, to interpretation and explanation. This approach is followed in each of the book's two central parts, on brittle and ductile deformation respectively. The description of joints and faults is therefore covered before stress and brittle failure theory, and the description of folds, foliations and lineations before strain. This order is the reverse of some taught courses, and its successful deployment in the book is a credit to a carefully written text and to clearly drafted illustrations. The third part of the book then covers rheology and its application to microscopic deformation fabrics and to scale modelling. Part four covers regional structural associations, and provides a link with a chapter on global tectonics. In the new edition, this chapter comes at the beginning rather than near the end of the book.

Many of the other organizational changes in the new edition involve moving more detailed material into topic boxes or appendices, either at the end of the chapters or at the end of the book. Strain measurement, geophysical techniques, and orientation data analysis are examples of such displaced material. The increased length of the book is due to the addition of a wealth of new material. Notable are the new topic boxes on scientific method, fractal geometry, and the pitfalls of confusing stress and strain terminology. There is a whole new chapter on development of deformation structures at plate boundaries. Overall, the revisions have succeeded in bringing the book up to date with recent research developments in structural geology and tectonics. However, it is a pity that there is still relatively little emphasis on methods of drawing cross-sections or on stereonet analysis. These practical methods are routes into structural geology from field mapping and remain important research tools.

The second edition of Structural Geology will undoubtedly ensure that its prominent position in the textbook market is maintained. A bonus for teachers is that all the excellent diagrams for the book are available online. The book is also a reliable reference source for professional geologists needing a clear, well illustrated link between undergraduate knowledge and a range of structural research fields. Introductory courses on structural geology will probably still need to use simpler, if older, texts.