First impressions of this new text are promising. The author, who gained practical experience in shipping Chambers before returning to academic life, has arranged the book to reflect the three broad areas of a pure shipping lawyer’s practice: “dry shipping”, “wet shipping” and enforcement of claims. The text is well and clearly set out and avoids the endlessly subnumbered paragraph systems which bedevil so many works; the index, though fairly brief, is sensible and sufficient. In the preface the laudable aim of the book is propounded: to dispel the reputation of English shipping law for fiendish complexity and to enable the student to appreciate the international appeal of that law.

A fresh approach to familiar subjects should be welcomed and, though this new work enters a field already well covered by Wilson and Chorley & Giles, its style and format are quite different and for some it will doubtless provide a useful alternative. It is, essentially, a student text; the