In his Preface, the author refers to “the absence of a large volume of litigation affecting lien”, and declares it to be one of his aims “to enable the busy practitioner not only to advise his client whether a lien exists but also, if it does exist, then to advise on its precise nature and incidents, and how it may be either enforced on the one hand or defeated or discharged on the other”. One might have thought that the first step for any author professing such an aim would be to check thoroughly all recent reported decisions in the field, and to identify the important modern practical questions. Sadly, the author’s research on the first of these points would appear to have been woefully inadequate. A vast amount of modern authority receives no mention or analysis at all. Thus, one will search in vain for guidance on the question whether a bailee of goods can create a valid lien in favour of a third party without the actual authority of the owner (cf. Tappenden v. Artus [1964] 2 Q.B. 185); or whether an accountant has a lien over the books and papers of his client (cf. Woodworth v. Conroy [1976] Q.B. 884) or a racehorse trainer over the horse itself (cf. Ward v. Fielden [1985] C.L.Y. 2000); or whether the sale of a chattel which is subject to a lien can, in any circumstances, dissolve the lien. The book contains no mention of Re Welsh Irish Ferries Ltd. (The Ugland Trailer [1986] Ch. 471 on the registrability of a shipowner’s lien over sums payable to a charterer as sub-freights, or of Singh v. Thaper (1987) The Times, 7 August as to the effect upon an assertion of lien of the failure to specify adequately the amount due. Apart from a perfunctory reference on p. 16, the only reference which the reviewer was able to find to the hotel proprietor’s lien occurred on p. 80, where the author quotes verbatim s.2 of the Hotel Proprietors Act 1956, stating merely that the lien does not apply to vehicles or their contents, or to horses or other animals or their harness. One could multiply the list of omissions, but to do so would be to come close to rewriting the book.

The same appears to be broadly true for those modern issues which are uncovered by substantial authority. For example, the assertion of a lien over a costly machine such as an air-