Edited by two British academics, this superb reference tool has quickly found pride of place near my elbow at the location where I think and write. Smallish but crystal-clear fontwork allows hundreds of concise, well-edited articles to fill up just over six hundred pages in complement with a rather full bibliography.
An intense cross-referencing system leads the reader productively from article to related article, allowing for either a quick dip into the material or an extended foray.
I withhold the fifth star in this review not because of any intrinsic defect in the book but rather because events since 1999 make an update almost obligatory.
Although intended as a single-consult reference dictionary, this work actually makes for an enjoyable extended read.
Kudos to Penguin for producing an eminently useful small dictionary.
Canter Bridge 
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