A well-produced, lavishly illustrated, and yet very informative volume on the artistic aspects of heraldry and how European styles and symbolisms affected British armory. Especially interesting are the discussions of "attributed" arms, such as those of Christ and King Arthur; apparently, it was unthinkable to medieval heralds that gentlemen of such significance and rank should not be assigned official arms.

The book is not perfect- it does go into significant detail about heraldry in general, which detracts from its focus as a bestiary of armoury. It also contains a number of errors, such as the description of what is actually a badly-drawn wolf's head crest as a new form of sea-dragon. These errors are neatly summed up in a review in The Coat of Arms, and are not enough to ruin the book. ( )