Those who like economy in their reference books may be offended by the CBH’s abundance. It may be a useful resource for lawyers, historians, academics, idlers, teachers, preachers and, well, anyone really. But what have bollards, tomahawks and Polynesia to do with British history, and do we really need to know about demurrage? The economy lies in the style, and the authority, which is nowhere more evident than in the preface (he calls it a ‘scheme’) in which the author lays out his criteria and guidelines in less than three pages. It is a model of intellectual discipline, which is sustained throughout the book.

The CBH is a better first stop than the internet: it’s quicker, you know where the information is coming from, and it allows serendipity to the browsing eye: it’s cheap at the price. I hope a later edition will find the author’s name between Arnold, William Delafield (1828-59) who was ‘director of public instruction in the Punjab from 1856’ and Arnold-Forster, Hugh-Oakeley (1855-1909), where there will be suitably dry recognition of how truly astounding it is that a single man could write such a book in any age, let alone ours. 

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