I was less than enthusiastic about the first volume in this series, but its successor hits the spot, the mark, the nail on the head. Symbols pervade pretty much all aspects of culture, art and religion and decoding them is often the key to understanding. With such a variety, no one is going to remember everything and a handy pocket guide is exactly what you need. This one is arranged primarily by continent and then by culture and/or religion or usage so, for example, you get Christian angels, Graeco-Roman deities and fantastic creatures – groupings driven by what there is rather than made-up categories the author wants to shoe-horn the material into.
I’ve said before that making pocket-size books for the sake of it just hampers clarity and understanding, but this is exactly the sort of thing you are going to want to carry round with you and the concise explanations are something you can readily absorb on a city tour or a gallery visit.
