Southern Africa is without equal in terms of geology, a treasure trove of valuable minerals with a geological history dating back some 3 600 million years. In addition, the evolution of plants and animals, especially mammals and dinosaurs, is well preserved in the region, which also has among the best records of the origin of modern man.

The story of earth and life provides an insight into this remarkable history – how southern Africa's mineral deposits were formed, how its life evolved and how its landscape was shaped. Along the way readers will be enthralled by accounts of the Big Bang that marked the beginning of time and matter, by drifting and colliding continents, folding and fracturing rocks, meteors colliding with the Earth, volcanic eruptions, and the start of life. Other topics include why South Africa is so rich in minerals, how glacial deposits came to be found in the Karoo, why dinosaurs became extinct, how mammals developed from reptiles, and how closely humans are related to the apes.

The answers to many such questions can be found in this title. Anyone interested in the landscape and ecosystems in which we live will be intrigued by this title.

This introduction to Morte Darthuroutlines the book's basic character, followed by a study of the key concepts of love, loyalty, sin and shame. Malory's approach to his material is discussed, as are his sources, and his individual contribution; finally, Maloryand his book are placed in their historical context. Published in 1988 as Reading the Morte Darthur. Presents in very accessible form the explanatory material which (students) will require. He is well-informed about the basic issues in Malory scholarship and criticism, and his approach is sound.' REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIESThis book is aimed specifically at readers approaching Malory's Morte Darthur.N>.N>. it will be very useful both to new readers and to their instructors.' CHOICEThe Morte Darthuris a book of action and adventure, not a book of thought. It is full of unexplained and inexplicable customs, magic and mystery, love and hate, nobility, villainy and the highest ideals. Among its characters are the heroes and heroines of the greatest love stories in the western tradition, and it appeals to our most basic and powerful sentiments. Terence McCarthy's book is an introduction to Malory, and so the first section is designed to show how to go about reading the Morte Darthur, and to outline aspects of its basic character. The remaining sections offer an interpretation of it, beginning with the key concepts of love, loyalty, sin and shame. The reader is urged to resist the temptation to consider the Morte Darthuras an early novel, and Malory as omniscient narrator, in order to see him as he saw himself - a historian chronicling the public events of a kingdom. Even his much-praised style underlines the formal and traditional aspect of his book. The Morte Darthuris based on inherited material, and while it is not necessary to know all the intricacies of Malory's sources, Terence McCarthy shows how Malory worked and the extent and nature of his individual contribution. A brief final section puts Malory and his book in their historical context: the turmoil of late fifteenth-century England may be a striking contrast to the order and harmony Arthur achieved (and lost), but too precise an interpretation will remain fruitless until we know more about Sir Thomas Malory -including who he actually was.

These studies look at Malory's Morte Darthur as both literature and history. Insights into warfare and into contemporary attitudes to violence and the depredations of war are balanced by considerations of the literary context of the Morte, both with regard to the manuscript tradition of 'grete bokes', and the first printed version. Current critical attitudes to the Morte are also examined, with the suggestion that Malory's intentions have been both imperfectly realised and understood. D. THOMAS HANKS Professor of English, Baylor University Many aspects of Malory's Morte Darthur reflect contemporary literary and social issues, and it is this topic which forms the focus for the eight essays in the volume, all by leading Malory scholars. Terence McCarthy suggests that the Morte was a book that came at the wrong time, and which we have admired for the wrong reasons. Andrew Lynch and D. Thomas Hanks Jr argue that Malory questions his culture's ideology of arms; Karen Cherewatuk and Kevin Grimm discuss the manuscript and printed contexts of the Morte. Robert Kelly examines some of the political elements of the Morte; Ann Elaine Bliss points out the role of processions in Malory's time and in the Morte; and P.J.C. Field compares the Morte's final battle to elements of the Battle of Towton (1461), finding strong similarities between the two.