A COMPANION TO THE ENGLISH CIVIL WARS by P R Newman 1990 – Routledge Press. Newman’ 1,00 entry dictionary gives concise easy to find thumbnail biographies of the major and a few minor figures involved in the Civil War battles, sieges and other campaigns. Charles 1st, Charles 2cd and Oliver Cromwell could hardly be left out of any such study, but Newman also gives attention to the important work of Queen Henrietta Maria, William Waller, Lord Leven, and John Lillburne, the founder of the Levellers, as well as Gerrard Winstnley’s Diggers. The major battles at Naseby, Marston Moor, etc are covered in some detail, along with sieges like Basing Hose and Roundway Down, and there are entries on the fall of Liverpool, and Cambridge as well. Weapons like muskets and pikes have their own entries, as do major political documents such as The Grand Remonstrance, and the Self-Denying Ordinance. Terms like Roundhead and Cavalier are easily explained, as well as the central beliefs of Puritans, Catholics and Anglicans in the period. The book is a useful book for referencing set events and looking up the year, month and day of any given battle, and it is also very entertaining just to dip in and read some feature or other from time to time. Scottish and Irish aspects of the battle are not ignored, and though there are inevitable omissions, i.e. (Manus O’Cahan’s part in the Scottish battles, and Jeffrey Hudson, the dwarf-jester who went on to lead a cavalry division for the King), The study is well presented and quite comprehensive overall. The book also has a series of closing maps and a very useful year-by-year chronology of the main events of the Civil Wars. One of the handiest books to have around for any Civil war student, historian, writer or re-enactor.