This is a revised and improved edition of the original Handlist (1985), listing all known Class I and Class II Pictish symbol stones and cross-slabs. Carvings on cave walls and rock faces are also included, but no other classes of Scottish Dark Age sculpture. The student of Pictish art will find this an enormously helpful work of ready reference, with entries for each stone giving the National Grid Reference Number, bibliographical references and short descriptions of those stones discovered since the publication of The Early Christian Monuments of Scotland in 1903.

A useful Introduction goes into the history of the recording of Pictish monuments from the C16th on, and includes a generous mention of the PAS:

The formation of the Pictish Arts Society has had an important impact on public awareness about Pictish stones, the vulnerability of many, and their great artistic value, both in the study of the past and as an inspiration to craftsmen today. The archive of material gathered by the Society has been deposited in the NMRS. The compilers of the present list acknowledge the assistance of many members of the Society . .

It is notable how many more stones are listed in the 1994 than in the 1985 Handlist, including not only the several "new" stones that have been discovered in the interim, but also certain or possible examples, now lost, found by a trawl through various written sources.

The book is enhanced by fine photographs of individual stones from the NMRS (National Monuments Record of Scotland) archive and an attractive cover, and is a hugely useful and reasonably priced work of reference which I shall have constantly to hand while putting together future editions of the Pictish Arts Society Journal.

Pictish Symbol Stones: A handlist 1994 can be obtained for £3.50 (including postage UK only) from:

The Secretary, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, John Sinclair House, 16 Bernard Terrace, Edinburgh, EH8 9NX.

Niall M Robertson.